Lionel Messi closed out his first season at PSG with a title, bad drink whistles and a hole in the calendar

For Metz, the match to be held this Saturday at 4:00 pm at the Parc des Princes is the last chance to avoid relegation, in a battle held every inch with a historic French football player, Saint-Etienne. For its rival, Paris Saint-Germain, the rivalry will be no more than a statistical record in a campaign that closes as domestic league champions, but will also be a major disappointment. And for Lionel Messi, it will be the end of a gray season, his first away Barcelona as a professional footballer.

When he was welcomed by a large crowd on August 10 in the French capital, where he arrived to sign his contract five days after publicly announcing his departure from Barça, Messi was certainly, like his new teammates , the coaching staff led by Mauricio Pochettino, the leadership and fans dreamed that the duel against Metz for the final date of Ligue 1 would be the penultimate of the season and the last one would take place a week later at the Stade de France in Saint-Denis. But Real Madrid and Liverpool will star in the Champions League finals, the old dream that PSG had not successfully pursued for a decade. That hole in the calendar marked the first year of Leo in Paris.

His capture is intended as finding the last piece missing from a combo of stars to finish building that structure that will allow him to fight hand-in-hand with the giants of Old continent for the most coveted and elusive trophy. That is why the elimination in the round of 16 at the hands of Real Madrid continued into the season anxious gone. The assignment to Ligue 1 in a campaign in which Pochettino’s team was also ejected from the French Cup in Nice’s round of 16 was not much of a comfort.

A rift that has been building among supporters over the past few weeks due to the team’s volatile pace has turned to anger after the Champions League disaster. Soccer players have become a favorite target of fans, especially of Collectif Ultra Paris (CUP)the PSG bar. Messi was not left with questions: he whistled during the game against Bordeaux on March 13 (four days after the defeat against Real Madrid) and was booed again two weeks ago, in a 2-2 draw with Troyes.

The top scorer in the history of the Argentine national team is fitting for law generals: he is seen by fans as part of the group of footballers defined by the CUF as “overpaid mercenaries” on a banner he displayed in February at the Parc des Princes and where only Kylian Mbappé and captain Marquinhos seem to be left. At the time of action Messi hasn’t done too much merit this year to avoid rejection.

Rosario’s performance in this campaign was just a few years away from what he showed on his best day in Barcelona, ​​when he won battles with a magical brushstroke, accumulated wholesale titles, remained unmoved at the highest step of the world football podium and he has been able to face healthy seasons of more than 50 games with his club (in addition to the promises of the chosen) thanks to the support of a physique proof of all.

The 2021/22 version of Parisian Messi, with 34 years behind and the World Cup in Qatar as the next (and last?) Big goal, is more similar to the first three full seasons than the first in Catalan. club, when repeated muscle injuries have conditioned that child who has been an adult since then and emerges as an unmistakable crack.

Will play on Saturday against Metz at the Parc des Princes it will be the 34th game in this first experience in PSG uniform and 26th for Ligue 1 (he also played 7th for the Champions League and 1 for the French Cup). Of the 33 games in which he has participated so far (he started 31), he has a total of 2,782 minutes of activity and converted 11 goals (6 in the domestic contest and 5 in the continental tournament). He is the team’s third highest scorer, behind Mbappé (36) and Brazilian Neymar (12).

For Messi, these records are the weakest in fifteen years and an astronomical distance, for example, from 60 games, 73 goals and 5,221 minutes on pitch he accumulated in the 2011/12 season with Josep Guardiola’s Barcelona . In the Catalan team he only played less than 40 games in a campaign in 2006/07 (36 and 17 goals), when a fracture of the fifth metatarsal in his left foot kept him inactive for three months, and in 2005/06 (25 and 8 goals), when several muscle damage caused him nearly three. months of work.

This year he has not suffered a serious injury, but a chain of discomforts and pathologies (in addition to a few trips to represent the selected team) has caused him to miss a dozen games at PSG: a bone that bruise on his left knee in September, a problem with his hamstring accompanied by pain in his left knee in November (before the double date of the Qualifiers against Uruguay and Brazil), the spread of covid-19 in early Januarya picture of the flu in March and a swelling in the left Achilles tendon in April.

after its small Way of the Cross After nine months that have left him evidence as a more earthy player than ever, Messi will play this Saturday in the final 90 minutes (or those Pochettino decided to include him on the field) of his first season in France. . I have nothing to do against Metz that will significantly change the balance of this experience. And he has nothing to do that will change the legacy of a footballer who marked a season and where the passage of time began to send signals.