Is Messi returning to Barcelona? Part 3

As the Parisian side was knocked out from the Champions League once again in the 2021 Season, the frustration of the fans kept on increasing with most of the fans started to criticize the Argentine Leo Messi as the expectations were too high for him and they even booed his name in the Parc De France in the game after the elimination against Real Madrid which only led towards a bad relationship between the player and the ultras of Paris. But they still had high expectations from the Argentine and not from the whole team instead.

Messi as a World Champion, his relation with PSG & its fans

The 2022 season started with hope and optimism as the French side performed outstandingly well under the charge of new coach Christophe Galtier they didn’t lose a single game till mid-November. And 2022 was a season where there was an international break for the big stage of them all, the global sporting event, the FIFA World Cup Qatar. Everything was going according to the plan of PSG as they were at the number 1 spot in the French league, didn’t lose a single Champions League group stage game, and made it into the Round of 16 of UCL with comfort.

Then came the international break with the FIFA World Cup on the line as Qatar became the center of the World’s attention with all 3 superstar Parisians Kylian Mbappe, Neymar, and Lionel Messi keeping their eyes on the biggest prize in World football. Kylian Mbappe who previously led the French National side to their 2nd World Cup in the history in the last edition of the World Cup in 2018 when he became World Champion as a teenager. On the other side Neymar, who had significantly never any senior trophy with the Brazilian national side, only having an Olympic gold to his name had all the eyes on the prize as the Brazilian side was one of the favorites to do so having a top-notch and a world-class team under an experienced coach Tete.

And then Lionel Messi, who had won everything in his successful career including every club title and many individual awards already considered one of the Greatest Players of All Time was going to play his 5th and possibly the last World Cup of his Legendary career. After many years of pain and disappointments in the last 10 years as an Argentine National player and captain having lost 1 World Cup Final in 2014 and 3 Copa America finals consecutively, Messi finally led his side to their first-ever International Trophy in 2021 where under his captaincy, Argentina National Team won the Copa America beating Brazil in the final at Brazilian soil. Under the coaching of Lionel Scaloni and the captaincy of Messi, the Albecelesties were unbeaten in 36 games since 2019 having won Copa America and The Cup of Champions(Finalissima) beating Italy. So everything looked perfect as Lionel Messi was dreaming to win the only and the most important title left in his career to be won.

Argentina one of the favorites to win the World Cup shockingly started their WC campaign losing 2-1 to one of the weakest sides in the competition Saudi Arabia. But Messi didn’t hold back. He calmed down the players after this shocking defeat and asked the fans to have ‘trust in the team’. He promised that the team wouldn’t let them down. Argentina’s all next games now became a ‘Do or Die’. Argentina similarly started their 2nd game to their first game but in the 2nd half, their main man, the number 10 having the name Messi on his back saves the team with an out-of-the-box low shot finding the back of the net, and Argentina lead. This moment of magic from the magician Messi stands Argentina on its feet again and their hopes are still alive. Argentina won 2-0 against Mexico as well as against Poland with the same scoreline. And now Argentina is heading towards the last 16 of the World Cup.

They beat Australia 2-1 in the last 16 as the Magicman Messi again found the back of the net on his landmark 1000 games scoring his first ever world cup knockout stage goal. Now Argentina faces the Netherlands in the Quarter Finals of the World Cup. Argentina-Netherlands, the game that came out as one of the games for the ages didn’t disappoint. The game had everything. Fight, Goals, Comebacks everything. It ended 2-2 at full time and Argentina advanced to Semi-Finals after beating the Dutch side in a penalty shootout, thanks to the heroic saves by Emi Martinez in the shootout.

 

Argentina comfortably beat Croatia in the Semi-Finals by 3 goals to nil. Messi scored from the spot and gave a marvelous assist to Julian Alvarez for the Argentine 3rd goal. Argentina is into the Final of the Fifa World Cup once again after 8 years. On the other side, Brazil and Neymar were left in tears after getting beaten by Croatia in the Quarter Finals on penalties, and the South American side headed home. Kylian Mbappe, one of the standout performers of the World Cup leads his side once again to the World Cup final after beating his close friend and PSG teammate Achraf Hakimi’s Morroco.

The World Cup final is between the two Parisian Superstars and the two footballing world’s Giant Nations. Argentina and France both face each other for a 3rd World Cup title in their history as both already won it 2 times. And the World Cup final was nothing less than a pure thriller going down as one of the best FIFA World Cup Finals ever played as the scoreline was 3-3 at the end of 90 and 30 minutes extra time with Mbappe scoring all 3 for France and Messi scoring 2 times plus 1 by Di Maria for the Albecelesities. Argentina beat France in the World Cup Final on the course of a penalty shootout. Messi finally wins the only missing trophy in his career. His dream of becoming a World Champion comes true.

Now the other side of it was the French side. As already mentioned before, Messi was already criticized by the PSG and French fans, this defeat against Messi’s Argentina only added fuel to it as their hate towards Messi kept on increasing. Now they only wanted Messi to help the Parisian side win the Champions League in that ongoing season.

The post-World Cup part of the season proved nothing less than a nightmare for PSG as they were knocked out by their arch-rivals Marseille in the French Cup and German side Bayern Munich in the Champions League and the Parisian mission failed badly once again. This failure of PSG was once again met outrageously by the fans and they started blaming their players once again as the center of their hate became the World Champion Messi. This destroyed the relationship between the Paris Ultras and Leo Messi as he start demanding the coach and many players including Messi to leave the Parisian side. But this season was a lot better season for Messi despite failure in UCL as compared to the 2021 season where the Argentine was able to score only 6 League goals. And this season Messi has already 15 Goals and 15 assists with 5 more games to come until the season ends. But the relationship between Paris fans and Messi was broken.

Messi’s Current Contract Situation & the Possibility of His Dream Return to his Teenage Club

Messi who signed a two-year contract deal with Paris Saint-Germain in 2021 expires in July 2023 in the current season. Messi has an option of a 2-year plus 1 optional year to stay in the French capital & has the option to be with the Parisian side until the summer of 2024.

As discussed earlier, Messi who left Barcelona in 2021 was brought only to the French capital with the foremost objective to win the Champions League title for PSG which they have never won in their whole history. While on the other hand, Messi, who already won the UCL 4 times with Barcelona, also had the same ambition to win the UCL title for the 5th time in his career which he hasn’t won since 2015. He lead his former Spanish side single-handedly to the UCL semi-finals in the 2018-19 season also having won the first leg 3-0 at home against English Giants Liverpool but unfortunately, the Catalan side was unable to stop the Jurgen Klopp side in the return leg and was beaten 4-0 0n a dramatic night at Anfield.

Messi also spoke when he signed for PSG in 2021 that ‘I want to win the Champions League and I think Paris is the best place to do it.’ The French side seemed to be very strong on paper and seemed one of the favorites to win the UCL title. But having no long-term plan and consistently changing coaches with some new players finding it difficult to adapt well in Paris as they were never used to including Messi being out of form and Former Real Madrid captain Sergio Ramos having injury issues in his first season only lead to an elimination from UCL in the first season. And following season, after the end of the World Cup, PSG had to face the mighty German side Bayern Munich in the last 16 with Neymar being injured and out of the whole season and some absentees in the midfield of PSG made this time even more difficult as the French side had to rely on some of the young players and they proved very weak in front of the very well shaped and much more experienced German side. They even got beaten in the 1st leg at home by 1 goal to nill and also got defeated in the return leg in a more bad fashion by 3-0 in Munich as they see another exit from UCL.

This consistent failure in UCL and Messi already being hated and criticized by the Paris Ultras, even getting booed at the Parc De France lead to a completely broken relationship. The ongoing talks since January between the club and the player to extend the contract at least until the summer of 2024 suddenly got broken as not the player nor the club seemed to be happy to continue with one another. With the famous French newspapers including Le Equipe and RMC Sport also confirming that Messi will not be staying in Paris next Season it seems more likely that he will leave. And in recent days, famous Journalist Fabrizio Romano also confirmed that the Argentine will leave Paris Saint Germain at the end of the season in the Summer of 2023.