How Messi’s marriage to PSG fell apart

By the time the private jet carrying Lionel Messi to a lucrative sponsorship deal in Saudi Arabia taxied off a French runway early this week, his Paris St.-Germain career was effectively over.

The suspension would come a day later. The official farewell will only take place when his contract expires in a few weeks. The blame game can go on for months.

But by Wednesday, the main points were in no doubt: Messi will never play for PSG again, and that is fine with both the player and the club.

The end will not have come as a surprise to either side. Their relationship had always been a business relationship, one that lacked the emotional weight of Messi’s previous tenure at Barcelona. And while there was talk of extending the striker’s contract in the weeks and months after Messi led Argentina to the World Cup title in Qatar in December, neither side seemed committed to finalizing a deal.

But by skipping An exercise on Monday, a day after fans in Paris laughed at the league leaders for a home loss to Lorient, a mediocre team expected to overrule PSG’s stacked squad, any idea of ​​an extension faded.

Monday is traditionally a day off for PSG players after a win. However, when they lose, the players are expected to train.

On Monday afternoon, however, Messi and his family were already photographed in Saudi Arabia, fulfilling part of the player’s multi-year contract to promote the Gulf Kingdom’s tourism authority. In Paris, club officials expressed their furious response to their star’s unauthorized absence.

On Tuesday night, news began to spread that PSG would not spoil Messi. Officially, the club is tight-lipped. But the punishments meted out to Messi quickly leaked out: he was suspended from training and matches for two weeks, during which time he would not receive a dime of his mammoth salary, reportedly nearly $800,000 a week. Privately, a club official said it was unlikely that Messi would ever wear the club’s colors again.

Like PSG, Messi and his representatives remained publicly silent as speculation grew that their relationship was falling apart behind the scenes. However, Messi’s camp has briefed several media personalities on his side of the story. Messi believed he had the club’s permission to carry out his commercial venture, those reports said this week. Messi had decided a month ago, someone reported, that he would not stay in Paris for a third season. He had even communicated that decision to the club, the reports said.

Meanwhile, the club did the same. The primary concern, it seemed, was not to mend the relationship, but to control the story. But focusing on the details ignored the obvious: this week’s denouement represents the low point in Messi’s dealing relationship, not just with PSG but perhaps with the state of Qatar. The former had heralded his arrival in Paris less than two years ago – a soft landing after Messi’s budget-driven, tearful departure from Barcelona – as a triumph. The latter has since gone to great lengths to associate with the genius of Messi.

The marriage of convenience couldn’t have gone better for player, club and country. Messi signed one of the richest contracts in the sport. Qatar-owned PSG added another world-class name to the hitherto fruitless quest for a Champions League title. The country of Qatar, meanwhile, added a headliner for the biggest event in the country’s history, the 2022 World Cup, then saw Messi star in a tournament that ended with his draped bisht – a traditional ceremonial cloak – by Qatar’s Emir and then paraded like a trophy through the streets of Lusail.

Figures close to PSG were surprised on Wednesday when the characterization of Messi’s departure was presented on his behalf. They said it was the club that was slow to accept the idea of ​​a contract extension as part of a plan to transform the club from its addiction to superstars like Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé and into one that relies more on talent from home soil. . Messi’s camp, they claimed, had even put a figure on what it would cost him to stay, proposing a salary increase well beyond anything the club had tentatively offered in January. But by then it might be too late.

Storm clouds began to gather almost as soon as Messi returned from Qatar as world champion. PSG’s form began to slip as the league season resumed in the new year, and its once unassailable league lead began to shrink. The team was dumped out of the French Cup and – most frustratingly for the Qatari owners and the Parisian fans – also out of the Champions League.

All the while, the jeers and whistles of the PSG echoes grew louder, and the angriest voices began to focus more and more on Messi, whose form and performance – perhaps as expected for a 35-year-old coming off an exhausting World Cup – have gone into hiding usual genius.

Messi watchers, part of a cottage industry as attached to the player’s stardom as to his football talent, have speculated in recent weeks about where he might land next season. A return to Barcelona perhaps? An American adventure in Miami? An extended stay in Saudi Arabia? Surely they are all on the table now.

As Messi poses for photos with his family in Riyadh, one thing is crystal clear: his future will not be in Paris.