Whistled by the Park and left head down after another flat performance against Rennes (2-0 defeat), Lionel Messi seems further and further away from Paris Saint-Germain, where he is coming to the end of his contract next June.
More and more cold. A few whistles descended from the spans of the Parc des Princes to the address of Lionel Messi during this first home defeat in Ligue 1 for 35 matches.
Admittedly, these broadsides did not have the intensity of those against him and Neymar a year ago after Real Madrid’s elimination in the knockout stages of the Champions League (1-0/1-3).
But a minority of spectators whistled the Argentine star, as soon as the composition of the teams was announced, and on a few badly negotiated attacking balls, especially for a player of his size.
At the end of the match, while the Park seemed inclined to forgive his team, the players even reaping some applause from the boiling Auteuil stand, Messi rushed alone into the locker room corridor, his head down, very low.
This little psychodrama has something to ask about the future of the sevenfold Ballon d’Or at “Paname”.
At the end of the contract in June, the Argentinian playmaker and his advisers are currently in negotiations with PSG for a possible extension.
“Lionel Messi should not be extended,” former PSG captain Eric Rabesandratana told AFP.
“Even economically, it’s not a good idea, he continues. His salary (estimated at 30 million euros per year, editor’s note) represents the budget of Lorient, what you spend on Messi, you don’t have it. not to take other players.”
Christophe Galtier recalled that the “Pulga” weighs this season “18 goals and 17 assists”, but isn’t it better to rebuild a team around Kylian Mbappé and break the famous “MNM” Messi, Neymar, Mbappé?
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Messi shuns training?
To complicate the situation, the world champion found himself in a controversy on Friday evening, part of the fact that he did not finish training on Wednesday at Camp des Loges.
According to RMC radio, confirming a rumor on social networks, he would have been unhappy with an exercise proposed by the staff. PSG strongly denied, as well as Jorge Messi, the player’s father, who spoke of “fake news” on his Instagram account.
Galtier assures us that this is not the case. “A quarrel with Messi? I didn’t expect your question,” he told Canal Plus.
“Wednesday, in the middle of the session, Leo felt a discomfort in the adductor. He cut short the training session. The next day, he remained in care with the staff. Then, he was able to chain the last two sessions with the group. Nothing happened between Leo and the group or between Leo and myself”, continued the coach.
Asked before the controversy on the hypothesis that Messi could be whistled by the Park, ten days after the new European failure, coach Christophe Galtier had replied: “But no! They have no reason to whistle our players, they have given the maximum in this competition. We were not eliminated because of so and so but because Bayern Munich arrived in better shape than us in this double confrontation (0-1 / 0-2) ” .
But according to the commentator of the match on France Bleu, “given the opinion of the fans about him, if QSI prolongs Messi, we are on a sporty 49.3”.