It's now official and the dream day has arrived for PSG. Leo Messi is leaving Barcelona to play at the Parc des Princes. The Argentine star will join the French side for the next two seasons, with the option to extend for one more, until June 2024. PSG's new star player will be paid 35 million euros per season.
Leo Messi is a new Paris Saint-Germain player. Possibly the most remarkable signing in recent years, as nobody thought that the Argentine star would leave Barcelona for another team. Leo says goodbye to a glorious spell at the Catalan club and 17 seasons later he will wear a shirt of another team. The Argentinian has signed a contract for the next two seasons with an option for another one. He will be paid 35 million per season and will be one of the highest paid players in the French team.
Messi has left Barcelona on Tuesday 10th at midday, where he has generated a lot of expectation and his father has already made a spoiler by confirming the expected. "Yes, we are going to Paris," confirmed the father of the best player in the world. Shortly after Antonela uploaded a photo before the plane took off. He arrived in Paris on 10th August at around 4pm and PSG revealed a video in which the player did not appear at any point, but his six golden balls did... The presentation was on Wednesday 11th at 11am.
This last week Messi, Barcelona and PSG have collided their tectonic plates causing an earthquake in world football. This signing will mark a before and after in the history of football and PSG signed one of the best players in the history of football at the age of 34. There were a lot of expectations surrounding the signing of the Argentine striker and finally the soap opera has come to an end.
Everything pointed to the fact that Messi was going to renew his contract with Barcelona, who were juggling to get the deal done. In fact, after the agreement announced by La Liga with CVC, everything seemed to be on track. But all this changed overnight, from almost having his signature on a new 5-year contract with Barca to being a PSG player.
For many Messi is the best player and for others one of the best, the fact is that his signing for the Parisian club leaves Barca and La Liga without their star player. Cristiano Ronaldo already left in 2018 and three years later his top competitor is doing the same. Messi's departure will also affect the morale of the entire Camp Nou family, from players to fans, who will no longer be able to see their star on their side.
The Argentinian said goodbye on Sunday 8th August at the Camp Nou, after a press conference marked by tears as he wanted to continue playing at Barcelona this year. Messi answered questions from journalists and said goodbye to his teammates and the fans, although he assured that he would have liked to say goodbye with the Camp Nou full of fans chanting his name.
Messi had decided to renew his contract with Barca this year, unlike last season when his intention was to leave. However, the one who has not been able to close the renewal due to its economic crisis has been the Catalan club and Messi leaves Barca after a whole life. Once it becomes official that he is leaving Barca, all eyes are on PSG, which seems to be the only team in the world to create a Dream Team without any obstacles.
PSG are signing big players this summer, Messi would be the fifth big signing after Ramos, Achraf, Donnarumma and Wijnaldum. A dream team that Nasser Al-Khelaifi has put together for the 2021-22 season. A team to fight for everything and to win everything, because with Messi, Mbappe and Neymar up front, there is nothing that the Paris giants can resist.
Several teams have sounded the alarm for Messi since his contract expired on June 30th, but it seems that Messi has always had in mind to renew and then PSG. In Paris he has many friends with whom he also met a few weeks ago and that may have been the trigger for him to end up in France. City directly ruled out signing Messi after the 100 million pounds they had just spent for Grealish and in the fight for the number 10 only PSG remained.