Messi in Paris or the time where dad stopped going to goal

To understand Lionel Messi’s scoring season, it may be necessary to ask Thiago, his eldest son. The Rosario crack provided the domestic scene, in December 2015, during the award ceremony for the Spanish League. “I dedicate it to my son Thiago who every time I leave the house gets angry and says to me: ‘Are you going to the goal again, dad?’ Yes son I will go to the goal again”, He released Leo, smiling, with the unique character of the best football player in his hands. Doubt arose: what question would Thiago ask now?

Or it might also help to summon Gerardo Martino to ask him to check on the appearance of the Argentina National Team captain. Ang dad know how to say, in 2014, when he managed Barcelona, ​​that he calmly rested because Messi was “with a killer look”. The coach spoke about the mentality of Flea and his desire to win and score goals.

In Paris a new Messi was spotted. There, in the French capital, Leo didn’t finish going precisely on goal nor was he seen with a deadly look. So. Signs his worst scoring campaign in last 15 seasons: 9 celebrations in 31 games.

More: his numbers are only comparable to his first two years as a professional footballer. Age explains a part and not the whole: Karim Benzema, who was also born in 1987, has 42 cries in the same number of games in the current campaign.

Messi has 15 consecutive seasons scoring 16 or more goals. His best record came in 2011/2012, when he scored 73 times in 60 games. How did you do in the last campaign in Barcelona? 38 celebrations in 47 duels.

The low number should be found in his first two campaigns as a professional. In his debut, 2004/2005, he scored a goal in 9 games; in the second, 8 to 25. Since then, his goal-scoring ability has not stopped growing.

You notice he’s different from Messi, he says to himself. And just as age is indecisive with his poor scoring statistics, he is also not involved in a team with Kyliam Mbappé: Rosario has had teammates, in Barcelona and on the National Team, who are the same stature as the Frenchman.

The feeling is that Messi has lost interest for the goal in France. There are current photos that became impossible months or years ago. In PSG’s last penalties, for example, Rosario has never come close to kicking: they always kill Mbappé or Neymar. Something similar happens with free kicks near the place: previously, no one dared to ask him for one; now, they do. And he agreed.

But where Messi’s lack of appetite is more apparent is in the last minutes of games. Throughout his career, Leo He became like a child at specific moments of almost every game: he was desperate to catch the ball and almost always close to the goal to increase the chances of scoring. “I’d rather go into the second half and play less than go out. A lot of games are defined at the end; there you’ll find more space, you’ll catch tired rivals”he explained in 2019. Now, at PSG, the Flea He finishes games closer to his own 5 than the rival goalkeeper.

It repeats itself: Messi has barely scored 9 goals in the 31 games he has played this season, 5 for the Champions League and 4 for the local League. And there’s also another weird fact there: if Leo completes the three remaining dates of the domestic championship (Troyes, Montpellier and Metz), he’ll reach 34 games. The last time you played under 35? In the 2005/2006 campaign, with 25 duels, 8 goals and 3 assists.

Messi’s first season in Paris is coming to an end and his statistics show that the adaptation to new life has affected him on the pitch. In other words, months in France have revealed that Messi is human. Not more or less than that.