Neither Lionel Messi neither him psg They will be able to tell that they lived a fairy tale when their relationship ends this summer. There were two years in which the Argentine striker was part of the French club, but he never ended up becoming the standard they needed to win his most coveted trophy: the Champions League. Now, Messi is on the verge of leaving for another destination, although with the shadow of devaluation and his low performance.
According to reports from international media such as L’Equipe, Marca and Mundo Deportivo, Lionel Messi He has decided to end his relationship with PSG in June of this year, which is just when the contract he signed for two seasons expires. His fate is still uncertain, but wherever he goes he will be worth 45 million euros, the lowest since 2007, according to Transfermarkt figures.
After 35 titles won in 17 years with the first team of the FC BarcelonaMessi accepted an offer from psg in mid-2021 because the economic balance locks of the Spanish LaLiga prevented him from renewing with Barca. At that time his letter was worth 80 million euros but in less than six months it dropped to 60 and, currently, towards the end of the 2022-23 season, it fell to 45 million.
Although Messi has just been world champion with the Argentina team in December, his performance with the psg It has not been as expected: his goal average dropped from 0.86 per game with the Barcelona shirt to 0.43 with that of the French team, in addition to the fact that he was not decisive in the round of 16 series of Champions which he played in both 2022 and 2023, so he could not help his team overcome that phase by being one of the title candidates for the value of his payroll.
In general, the market value of Messi It has been on a downward curve since 2018, when it reached its maximum price with 180 million euros at the age of 31. By October 2020, among the silence of the empty stadiums due to the pandemic, his letter fell to 100 million and in less than three years he had already lost another 65.
The last time the Argentine had been worth less than 50 million, according to Transfermarkt reports, was in 2007, when he was 20 years old and just consolidating as a starter for Barcelona. Now almost 36, he finds himself in that situation again, although he remains the highest rated player in the world among those born in 1987.
Regarding the break with psg, Sports world explains that this took place since the beginning of March, when they were eliminated in the round of 16 of the Champions Against Bayern Munich: “Messi rejected PSG’s renewal offer, which wanted to keep him for at least one season. The reason was the new elimination in the Champions League, as well as the absence of a consistent sports project for the future for the next season,” the newspaper said.
Almost two months later the news has been confirmed by other media and by the journalist Fabrizio Romano, but now pointing out that it was the psg who decided to withdraw the renewal offer. The relationship came to a head in early May after the striker traveled without the club’s permission to a business engagement in Saudi Arabia, which earned him a two-week fine without salary and unable to play.
“Messi began to feel how the club was destabilizing him. Despite achieving 20 goals and 19 assists, a part of the PSG fans whistled at him (…) Now he finds himself in an unprecedented situation in his career: without a clear and sanctioned future. With a monthly salary estimated at around 3.37 million euros, the sanction will deprive him of approximately 1.7 million,” said the newspaper El País.
The advantage for Lionel Messi is that as of July 1 he will be a free player and will be able to sign up with any club on the planet without having to pay a fee for his transfer, which would be around 45 million of his current market value.
This is just what happened to him in 2021 when his contract with the FC Barcelona and the psg He didn’t have to pay anything for his transfer, other than just agreeing with him and his agent (his father, Jorge Messi) his salary and some bonuses. According to estimates by Le Parisien, Messi came to earn 41 million euros net each year in France, so he will leave this summer with 82 million in his coffers.
Among the clubs that have sounded like new destinations for Lionel Messi there is FC Barcelona, where he played for more than 20 years since he was a teenager, Al Hilal from Saudi Arabia, with an offer close to 400 million euros for a season, and even Inter Miami in the United States. However, his next stop remains uncertain.
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