There are more winners than losers in Paris St Germain’s Messi signing
KOLKATA: Blindsided by Barcelona, Lionel Messi had to leave, in tears. “I never imagined having to say goodbye,” he said on Sunday. But Messi joining Paris St Germain (PSG), reportedly on a €35 million annual salary plus bonuses for two years with an option for a third, could lead to a situation where there are more winners than losers.
“At first it will be weird. But people will get used to it, as we always do,” Messi said at his last press conference as a Barcelona player. Once PSG and Messi, who will not wear No. 10 in Paris as that is Neymar’s shirt, get used to each other, it could have a knock-on effect on Argentina’s campaign in the 2022 World Cup, Qatar’s image as the host of football’s biggest event and growing Ligue 1’s audience.
Messi’s smile that lit up a July Sunday morning in India for those who watched the Copa America final and the pride with which he displayed the winners’ medal to his family from the Maracana pitch showed what winning for Argentina means to him. Not for the first time had Messi dragged Argentina deep in a tournament --- he contributed to nine of their 13 goals --- but this time it was in a winning cause. Not since Alejandro Sabella had rebuilt a squad after the 2010 World Cup ended in ignominious failure have Argentina looked capable of winning a tournament as they did in Brazil under Lionel Scaloni.
So, can you blame Messi for hoping for a final flourish (assuming he isn’t playing at 39 in the 2026 World Cup) on football’s grandest stage? And is there a better way of getting there fresh than representing a club full of performers in a league it has won in seven of the last nine seasons? Their transitioning plans far from perfect, Barcelona were heavily dependent on him for goals. It is proof of Messi’s genius that he scored 30 last term, the maximum for the fifth successive season, in the league and 38 in 47 games in all competitions. Only Robert Lewandowski had more goal involvements (41 goals and seven assists) than Messi’s 39 in Europe’s top five leagues. “Messi is a cast-iron guarantee,” Christophe Lepetit, director of France’s Centre for the Law and Economics of Sport, told AFP.
At Messi’s final press conference, he had spoken of hoping to win another Champions League. Going into the season, PSG look a better bet to do that than Barcelona.
Since 2014-15, Barcelona have made the semi-finals once (2018-19 when they famously imploded at Liverpool). They were knocked out in the round of 16 by PSG last term; Kylian Mbappe scoring a hattrrick at Camp Nou. PSG have had their share of nightmares in the Champions League but played the final in 2019-20 and the semifinal in 2020-21.
That squad has been bolstered by goalie Gianluigi Donnarumma, centre-back Sergio Ramos and midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum on free transfers and full back Achraf Hakimi for 60m euros from Inter Milan. And now it has Messi. “He is the best player in the world, I am excited and happy at the thought of having him in the team,” Donnarumma has said ahead of the season in which PSG would look to regain Ligue 1 and make another bid for a first Champions League title.
In Mauricio Pochettino, PSG have a coach who knows what it is to play a Champions League final. In a team fizzing with attacking talent, it will take some reorienting to fit Messi but it is a problem few coaches would mind. Since 2011, PSG have been owned by Qatar Sports Investments which has close links with the country’s rulers. It was from the verified Twitter handle of Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Bin Ahmed Al-thani that the news of Messi joining PSG was posted. Al-thani, who ruled Qatar from 1995-2013 before his son became king, is a relative of Nasser Al-khelaifi, the PSG president. Messi joining can give Qatar 2022 a positive spin in the way it was inconceivable around this time last week. It is a happy coincidence that Xavi Hernandez and Samuel Eto’o, Messi’s teammates at Barcelona, are among the World Cup’s global ambassadors appointed by Qatar.
PSG unveiling a “new diamond in Paris” via Twitter three days before their season’s opening home game at a full Parc des Princes should also translate into good news for Ligue 1. According to statista.com, at 31% France has the least people watching football regularly among the top five European leagues. Last January after the collapse of a 814 million euro television deal, reports in the French media said viewership of Ligue 1 had halved from 2007-08. Messi’s arrival should be a boon for Amazon which bought major broadcasting rights from this season to 2023-24 for a reported sum of 825m euros. “It’s extraordinary for Ligue 1,” said Metz coach Frederic Antonetti.