Cash is king but Messi’s next stop should be a trip home – to Barca
THE numbers are so absurd as to have almost lost all meaning. Lionel Messi, heading out of the door at Paris Saintgermain, is considering an offer to join Saudi Arabian club Al-hilal on wages of £320million per year.that equates to £6.15m per week or £876,000 per day.
Even Kwasi Kwarteng couldn’t blow through that stack in a hurry.
The deal, which would render Cristiano Ronaldo’s £175m contract at Al-nassr small change, would be the most rewarding in football history and see Messi leapfrog his old sparring partner as the world’s highest-paid athlete.
For the Saudis, provided Ronaldo (below) stays on next season, it would raise the mouthwatering marketing prospect of a remake of the pair’s Barcelona/real Madrid rivalry – only with more sand.
At 35 and with every career ambition realised, the temptations are obvious for Messi.
He clearly has no moral issue with working for the Saudis. He is already on the country’s payroll as an ambassador for the Saudi Tourism Authority.
It was that arrangement which landed him a two-week suspension from PSG this week, after he missed training in Paris to fulfil promotional obligations in Saudi.
Refused permission to travel after PSG manager Christophe Galtier ordered naughty boy training following the home defeat to Lorient, Messi went with his family anyway.
You can be pretty sure not all the conversations during his unsanctioned break surrounded dates and falconry.
The courting from the Saudis is intense and the potential rewards enormous – but Messi shouldn’t even think about it.
Nor should he contemplate the pull of the Florida lifestyle.the option to join Inter Miami in the MLS should also be a non-starter given the level he is still capable of operating at.
The line has been promulgated that Messi is done as a serious player, that somehow the player of aworld Cup staged just four months ago has suddenly fallen off a cliff.
The end of the affair in Paris may have been disappointing – particularly the Champions League quarter-final exit to Bayern Munich – but the Messi flame has not gone out yet.
EVEN in a dysfunctional PSG side, Messi tops Ligue 1’s assist list this season and he has scored 15 goals as well. He still has another season of top-level European football in him.
The last time Messi moved clubs two years ago, Manchester City tried to bring him to the Premier League.the reunion with his old Barcelona manager Pep Guardiola never happened then – might it now?
The prospect of Messi feeding the beast that is Erling Haaland would be a terrifying one for defences across the country but an appealing one for neutrals.
At his age, any side that signed him would have to indulge him – his team-mates would have to do his closing down for him – but leaving the running to the worker bees and the magic to Messi seemed to work for Argentina in Qatar.
The trouble is that a free pass defensively is not the City way.
No, sadly, we are unlikely to ever get to see if Messi can do it on a cold night at Turf Moor.
In reality there is only one place for Messi next season – Barcelona.
If there is one club in the world – apart from maybe Newell’s Old Boys back in Argentina – that would press his buttons again, it is the one that is more than a club.
He cares deeply about Barcelona. The tears he shed when he left were genuine. A return to the club where the shy boy from Rosario grew into the greatest player of his generation would represent the nearest big-time football gets to romance.
It would take some financial sacrifice on Messi’s part, given the salary ceiling hoops through which Barca have to jump to satisfy La Liga, but the pension pot is overflowing anyway.
Listen to the heart, Leo. For one wonderful year, make it about love – and enjoy a last dance at the Camp Nou.