What will become of Lionel Messi?

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Argentine striker Lionel Messi was suspended for two weeks on Tuesday by Paris Saint-Germain, a French league football club he plays for and which is controlled by the Qatari royal family, where Messi had won the World Cup at the end of 2022 with the ‘Argentina. The decision was made after the player failed to show up for training the day before, when he went to Saudi Arabia without authorization for a commitment related to his sponsorship deal with the country. Messi will therefore miss two league games, will not be able to train with his teammates and will not receive the salary for that period, which in his case is estimated to be around one and a half million euros.

The suspension – not officially communicated by the team but confirmed by various media and proven by Messi’s absence from recent training sessions – is important for two reasons: because it shows Paris Saint-Germain’s intention to “draw a line”, then establish with clarity what are the behaviors not allowed to their players; and because it will in all likelihood push Messi to change teams next season.

And more party on the contrary, it is assumed that Messi will no longer play for Paris Saint-Germain not even after the two-week suspension, and there are currently three destinations given as the most probable for his next season: Barcelona, ​​for a complicated but fascinating return to origins ; Inter Miami, to help football grow in the United States; and Saudi Arabia, to do like Cristiano Ronaldo, take what is already expected could be the richest contract ever offered to a footballer and bind even more to the country’s interests and plans, not just sports.

The situation is complicated by the fact that neither Messi, considered by many to be the best footballer ever, nor Paris Saint-Germain have made any official statements on this matter: all the available information comes from press reconstructions, especially from the French one.

Messi has been a testimonial for Saudi Arabia since before he became a Paris Saint-Germain player in the summer of 2021. The team was therefore aware of that agreement and it seems that Messi’s contract includes a certain leeway to make trips to promote Saudi Arabia’s image. The terms of the agreement between Messi and the Saudis are not known, but it is known that already in 2022, after Paris Saint-Germain had won the championship, Messi had been in Saudi Arabia for two days. His trip in recent days, made with his family and organized by the Ministry of Tourism, instead included a visit (and some photographs) in the main street of the capital Riyadh and in the nearby city of Diriyah.

#WelcomeMessi to Diriyah, the land of traditions, heritage and history. Leo Messi, his wife Antonella and his sons Mateo and Ciro had an enjoyable tour where they learned about the history of Saudi and met its generous and hospitable people in At-Turaif. pic.twitter.com/vna7y63m2u

– Ahmed Al Khateeb Ahmed Al Khateeb (@AhmedAlKhateeb) May 2, 2023

It is estimated that the agreement with Saudi Arabia, under which Messi must also post certain content on his Instagram profile, followed by over 450 million users, will bring in no less than 30 million euros a year, a figure close to what is estimated to be his one-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain.

According to the reconstruction ofCrew, Messi had already informed Paris Saint-Germain a few days ago that on Monday 1 May, a public holiday in France too, he was planning a trip to Saudi Arabia. It also appears that the trip had already been postponed twice and, according to sources close to Messi, already authorized.

Furthermore, if Paris Saint-Germain had won their league match on Sunday 30 April, that Monday would have been a day off for the whole squad. Instead, Paris Saint-Germain lost 3-1 against Lorient, which led the club to change plans and decide to schedule a training session for Monday. In short, Messi would have found himself with a trip already organized and difficult to cancel at the last minute, thus choosing to go anyway, despite the training.

It is not clear, however, if and what agreements Messi and Paris Saint-Germain had and even if there was a great misunderstanding, whether it was Messi who wanted to provoke Paris Saint-Germain (or who could not say no to the Saudi Arabia) or Paris Saint-Germain wanting to use what happened as a moment to get away from Messi. One hypothesis that has been made is that Paris Saint-Germain also wanted to “send a message” to the team, which in the league, with five matches to go, has a five-point lead over the latter, but which has been eliminated from the Champions League League and have lost three of their last six games.

Messi had arrived at Paris Saint-Germain in August 2021, after the expiry of his contract with Barcelona, ​​which he had been with for over twenty years and from which he had reluctantly left, as a result of the team’s serious economic problems . In Paris, Messi played with the French Kylian Mbappé and the Brazilian Neymar, in a team on paper that is very strong and certainly very rich but has never won the Champions League. Despite having arrived at the age of 34, Messi played over 70 games, scored 31 goals (many of which were decisive) and made over 30 assists for his teammates.

In short, in terms of numbers, and also in the quality of certain performances, he did very well, although obviously below his standards of the past and despite someone having pointed out a different intensity compared to his excellent performances against Argentina. Messi, wrote Vincent Duluc onCrewhas often given the impression of playing for Paris Saint-Germain «with the same happiness as someone who has to go to the dentist».

(AP Photo/Lewis Joly)

Also for this reason the relationship between him and part of the fans has been problematic for some time, given the high expectations towards him. Messi has played more than one match to the boos of his fans and, like he wrote Tariq Panja sul New York Times, the one between him and Paris Saint-Germain «has always been a business relationship, a relationship devoid of the sentimental weight between Messi and Barcelona». Furthermore, due to age and nationality issues, at Paris Saint-Germain Messi is generally one step below Mbappé, who is 24 years old and has a very high degree of influence in the affairs of the club, as well as the team.

One wondered, for example, if Paris Saint-Germain would have liked or even only could, under similar conditions, punish Mbappé in the same way he punished Messi; or even if Messi’s free-kick isn’t a way of saying, even to Mbappé, that no player can consider himself more important than the team.

The fact remains that it is now almost certain that Messi will go to play elsewhere from next season, despite his contract providing for the possibility of a renewal for another year, until a few months ago it was considered possible if not likely.

The return to Barcelona – now coached by Xavi, Messi’s former teammate – also seems to have been wanted by Joan Laporta, the president of Barcelona in Messi’s best years in the team and from 2021 back as president and looking for a re-election. The economic difficulties of Barcelona, ​​which will already have to struggle to renew the contracts of some of its players, and the fact that the team must respect certain spending parameters, however, make this transfer complicated, for which Messi would undoubtedly have to accept a contract much less rich compared to the alternatives. In addition to returning to his origins, he could also remain in the football “that matters”, the European one.

(David Ramos/Getty Images)

The transfer to Inter Miami, a US team controlled among others by former footballer David Beckham, would be yet another attempt, undoubtedly the most relevant to date, to increase the value and relevance of US football in a country that in 2026, when Messi will be just under forty years old, he will organize the next soccer World Cup and that in 2024 he will instead host the Copa América. Messi has been talking about a possible move to Inter in Miami for some time, and in many ways it would instead be a compromise choice: he would take more money than in Barcelona and much less than in Saudi Arabia, but giving up on European football and the Champions League League.

A contract with a Saudi team (the most probable are Al-Hilal and Al-Ittihad) would instead be above all an economic choice, given that there has been talk of the possibility of a contract worth around 400 million euros a year, even more than to the very rich one signed by Cristiano Ronaldo with Al-Nassr.

In that case, however, Messi would tie himself even more to Saudi Arabia, with the critical issues of the case and the many implications not only for football. The two best players of the last 20 years, both in their 40s, would play in the same league again (after having played together in the Spanish Liga) and take hundreds of millions of euros from a country which, among other things, is rumored to be hosting a World Cup of 2030, a significant year for the Saudi government. In fact, for some time now, the Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman has been launching the major “Vision 2030” project, with which he claims he wants to make the country independent of oil market trends and, in general, more open to the rest of the world.

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