Surely that’s getting old. Revisiting fifteen-year-old images, having the impression that it was yesterday, or almost, giving in to nostalgia before accepting what is imposed on us: this will not happen again. This Easter Monday 2022 will have been a melancholic day when the memories rehashed by social networks recalled what football had lost. It’s been fifteen years since the teenager Lionel Messi offered himself the replica of Diego’s goal of the century against Getafe. Seven adversaries in the wind, a ride of fifty meters, legs of fire and the impression that the world already belongs to him.
No, this will not happen again. The evidence already existed but resonates a little stronger still in this frankly disappointing year 2021-2022 for the Pulga. Some might say that 8 goals and 13 assists for a 34-year-old player discovering a new club is an honorable record. It’s too quickly forgotten the abysmal gap with his usual statistics when he carried Barça at the end of his silky feet. The comparison with the Messi of the 2019-2020 season, yet morally damaged at the start of the season, illustrates this statistical gulf.
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In all offensive categories, apart from assists, the Messi of Paris is quite clearly behind the Leo of Barcelona:
- Goals scored per game (0.27 versus 0.79)
- Shots attempted per game (3.1 versus 5.7)
- Shots on target per game (1 versus 2.8)
- Key passes per game (3 versus 3.7)
- Successful crosses (25% vs. 40%)
Successive missed appointments
The spite of Lionel Messi against OM
Credit: Getty Images
While OM represented the last major match of their first season in Paris, what image should be remembered? What founding match? His sensational goal against Manchester City (2-0) has long acted as a mirage on what his association with Kylian Mbappé could give. For the rest ? His hat-trick of assists in Saint-Etienne despite a match frankly unworthy of his talent? His double against Leipzig or Bruges? His multiple anonymous matches? No, what will remain is this missed penalty on the first leg against Real Madrid and this inability to influence the destiny of a team that he had to take in hand towards the heights.
Without Mbappé, what place for him?
So what’s next? The stakes of the Parisian summer cannot neglect the place left to Messi in the future eleven, probably deprived of Kylian Mbappé, unless there is an unexpected turnaround. This season, the best matches of the Pulga will have been in the axis, often in the absence of Neymar who will still be there next August.
The two friends have synchronized their level too little this season, giving rise to real doubts as to their complementarity in animation. The fact remains that his relationship with Marco Verratti has sometimes offered bewildering ease of ball exits at PSG and it is undoubtedly in this direction that the Parisian coach of next season will have to insist.
For the rest, it will be up to him to find what made his magic, what constitutes his legend. This little extra soul, this little jerk of the kidneys, these signature gestures never really seen on the side of the Park. Because the weather may have damaged his physical abilities somewhat, it does not prevent him from enjoying with the Albiceleste (5 goals in 9 matches). Even if you are already nostalgic for Messi, you might as well be to the end.
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