Paris’s farewell to Lionel Messi, the superstar brought to the capital of France to add unprecedented lustre to the city’s football, will be abrupt.
It may last fewer than 90 minutes. It may not even feature Messi again in a Paris Saint-Germain shirt at the Parc des Princes. There could be booing if it does.
As reports suggest he will leave the club in the summer, Messi learnt on Tuesday that PSG do not wish to see him in action again at their home stadium until at least the last day of the season, a month from now, as the club signalled, by suspending him for two weeks for a disciplinary breach – a ban that covers their penultimate home match of the campaign – that the two-year relationship will certainly be terminated in June.
There was an option for Messi, who turns 36 next month, to extend his contract to 2024. The dramatic announcement he is to be sanctioned and fined for an unauthorised absence from training, confirms the player and the club have given up pursuing that possibility.
Messi is understood to be upset about what he sees as an unfair punishment. After PSG, who lead France’s Ligue 1 by five points, lost for the third time in four home matches to Lorient on Sunday, the players were told their anticipated two-day break from practice on Monday and Tuesday had been changed. They were ordered to report to the Camp des Loges training site the day after the 3-1 defeat.
Messi had pre-arranged a 48-hour trip to Riyadh, to honour a commitment to the Saudi Arabia tourism authority, for whom he is an official ambassador. He went ahead with it. While he was in Saudi Arabia with his family, images of them heavily promoted, teammates trained on Monday.
PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi and sports director Luis Campos agreed Messi should receive an exemplary penalty for his absence: two weeks' suspension and a fine equal to a fortnight’s salary.
Messi’s camp argue the player had been put in an invidious position by PSG’s late change to the timetable, and that the visit to Riyadh had already been postponed twice.
But player discipline has been a tenet of head coach Christophe Galtier’s time in charge – he was appointed last summer, and will probably leave next month – and the sanctioning of Messi makes a powerful statement from a club perceived over the last decade to act indulgently towards its superstars.
“No one is above the team,” said Galtier at his unveiling. “There can be no substitute for hard work and respect.”
Messi’s contribution to the defence of PSG’s league crown after a first, discreet year following his departure from Barcelona because of that club’s financial crisis, also demands respect. He has scored 15 league goals and set up another 15 in his 28 matches.
But he has been jeered occasionally, too, by sections of the Parc. On his return to Paris in the new year after a brilliant, victorious World Cup in Qatar the Argentina captain had a mixed reception.
While Messi helped illuminate a tournament staged in the country that provides huge financial backing to PSG, the nation beaten in the final were France.
In February, Messi and the PSG hierarchy were still in active talks about triggering a third season in Paris. By March, they were making no progress. Alternatives for Messi’s next career step, as a free agent, took clearer shape.
One could be Riyadh, where he has a lucrative offer from Al Hilal, the Asian club champions, and a platform to add fresh chapters to 21st century football’s defining individual duel: Messi versus Cristiano Ronaldo.
Like Messi at PSG, Ronaldo’s adventure at Manchester United shuddered towards its end this season with his being punished for a disciplinary breach. He left and joined Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr.
Inter Miami, of the MLS, have a long-term interest in Messi, while a return to Barcelona has been mooted by Barcelona president Joan Laporta. Messi, who spent all but the last two years of his glittering career at Barca, still has a home just outside the city.
Laporta has claimed the club’s economic circumstances are far healthier now than when he told a tearful Messi, less than two years ago, he was no longer affordable.
But the hurdles to a reunion are considerable. After a year in which Barcelona sold off stakes in future broadcast and marketing income to strengthen a squad now set to win a first La Liga title since 2019, there is little flexibility in the budget.
Messi would have to drop his salary to something lower than he earned in his early 20s. To make space for him under the wage ceiling set by La Liga, Barcelona would need to remove high earners from their wage-bill and bring in significant income from summer sales.
There are differences of opinion within the Barca executive over Messi. Late on Tuesday, the club’s sporting director, Mateu Alemany, announced he would be leaving Camp Nou.
Alemany took the decision for several reasons, but doubts about the club’s strategy, centred around bringing Messi back, played a part.
