Lionel Messi and his future: a single plan pending talks with PSG

Hours and hours of television in Argentina, France, Qatar and every corner of the world you can think of. Centimeters and more centimeters in newspapers and magazines. Bytes and more bytes on portals and social networks. Everyone is talking about Lionel Messi’s future for some time and even more now after the clamorous elimination, labeled bankruptcy, of Paris Saint Germain in the Champions League round of 16. And all that is said, written, posted and debated seems to be in vain. Maybe it will be beneficial for the devotees of minute by minute and ratings peaks. Maybe some newspapers will sell a handful more with a striking cover. But for now, Messi’s future contains only one certainty: He has a contract with PSG until June 30 and the French club is the only one with whom he has open negotiations. The rest are pure speculation.

Sure, the slip and fall in rainy Bavaria altered that scenario. It is that in these days not only will Messi’s continuity be discussed, but the Qatari owners will be forced to rethink a sports project that season after season strikes an iceberg again and again. PSG, which between now and June will only play in Ligue 1, is like that a Titanic in loop. All dented. Sunk. And Messi, like Kylian Mbappé and Neymar -will they stay?-, are some of the pieces that were spun off after the 0-3 aggregate draw against the always compliant Bayern Munich.

This is what will be discussed in the coming days when Jorge Messi, father and representative of the best player of the last World Cup, meets again with the PSG bosses. There was already a meeting, weeks ago, in which the negotiations, which seemed very advanced immediately after Qatar 2022, were on standby. Especially since his interlocutors were unable to answer what the club’s 2023-2024 plan was. I had to cross the Rubicon -go to Bayern Munich- to keep talking. The die was cast and, unlike Julius Caesar in the conquest of Gaul, fortune did not fall on the side of the Parisians.

That pending interview should happen shortly. But that won’t be the only conversation that Nasser Al Khelaïfi, patron of the club, and company will have in front of them. Because from here on they have to design a totally new project.Surely the French Christophe Galtier will no longer be a coach. AND It is very probable that the cycle of the Portuguese sporting director Luis Campos is nearing completion. The first because he has never found the recipe for putting together a balanced team around Messi, Neymar and Mbappé. He has never played well. He didn’t even do better than in Mauricio Pochettino’s turbulent times as DT. And the second because, evidently, he hasn’t put together a competitive squad with a substitute. The Mbappé + 10 project, with fewer Argentines in the locker room, foundered.

Consequently, without knowing who will be in charge of rearming the sport or having an idea of ​​how the team will be structured for next season, it is difficult to establish whether or not Messi will continue in the team – there is talk, hastily, of the arrivals of Bernardo Silva, Gonçalo Ramos and Victor Osimhen-. The sporting project and the need to play in a team that gives stature weigh as much as the contractual and salary details. Jorge Messi will talk about all this with his interlocutors when he has an audience again at the Parque de los Príncipes.

Because what is concrete, it is insisted, is that for the moment Leo only has PSG on the horizon. The only thing that unites him to Barcelona, ​​​​beyond the rapprochement that has been talked about in the last few hours – for a tribute match? -it’s his home in Casteldefels and his old friends. The public apology from Joan Laporta, the president who kicked him out and who made him cry like never before in his life, should appear first to start retracing the path of a probable return. And Laporta is not the only problem. It’s not even the most complex to solve. The thing is the Catalan club must reduce around 200 million euros in salary and which seems incompatible with the return of Messi.

The United States seems as far away, for now, as that chimera-shaped dream called Newell’s and a burning rosary. There is, at least it is not known, flirting with some other giant of Europe. That’s why PSG have priority. And the fierce criticisms that have been heard in the last few hours don’t even push him away.

It’s not the first time Rothen has attacked Messi. “Messi’s draw sucks, even in terms of squad. Managing MNM is complicated. Then there is the payroll issue. We have seen PSG blocked by financial fair play. Because payroll has skyrocketed. Now he has the opportunity to save a large sum of money as Messi’s salary is substantial. And strengthen the rose”he said in February. In the same vein, other ex-footballers who have become serial commentators such as Bixente Lizarazu and David Ginola.

This Thursday, RCM, the chain where Rothen works, launched that PSG would no longer be convinced of negotiating the renewal of Messi. It was the only outlet that published it. Neither The Team, who stoned him with three more points on Wednesday -Mbappé took the same score and errant Marco Verratti received a deuce-, was emboldened to do so. Neither the Parisiansthe other means that follows in detail the daily life of the club.

It insists: criticism clearly takes a secondary place. Because Paris, beyond the fact that we need to see how the team rebuilds itself and what it can offer them so that they continue to have the possibility of being champions of that Champions League that has become elusive – they haven’t won it since 2015 -, is a place where his family has already adapted. Both boys with school and Antonella Roccuzzo, his partner, in his role as an influencer for various brands on social media. Another move would involve moving everything.

Here because, PSG is at a standstill floor A, B and C by Messi. And that scenario doesn’t change for the moment. At least until his father meets the Qataris. Will it be before Leo returns to Argentina to play for the national team? Only after that speech will it be possible to start playing – speculating – with the future of the best in the world.