Lionel Messi Set To Leave Paris Saint-Germain Club At End of Season: Report

Barring a late change of heart from him or PSG, this seems certain be his final season in the French capital for football legend Lionel Messi.

Lionel Messi. (Photo: AP)

Paris: Lionel Messi is set to leave Paris Saint-Germain when his contract expires at the end of the season after two years with the French club, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press news agency. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly comment on the Argentine great’s status.

The person said Messi’s departure was a mutual decision, with his contract effectively allowed to run down since January. The news comes a day after PSG suspended the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner following his trip to Saudi Arabia without the club's permission.

Messi has a commercial contract with Saudi Arabia to promote tourism in the Middle Eastern country and has been linked with a lucrative move there at the end of the season. There has also been talk of a return to Barcelona, where he spent the majority of his career, or to the United States to play in MLS.

Barring a late change of heart from him or PSG, this seems certain be his final season in the French capital. His suspension and news of his impending exit comes at a time when PSG is embroiled in an increasingly fraught French league title race.

Lionel Messi made unsanctioned visit to Saudi Arabia

Messi was supposed to be training alongside his teammates on Monday, but was instead in Saudi Arabia, holding a falcon on his arm, watching a palm-weaving demonstration and looking around the Arabian Horse Museum as part of his commercial contract with the kingdom to promote tourism there.

It was an expensive trip for the recent World Cup winner, who won’t get paid or be allowed to train or play with the team during his suspension. It looks like it will be a disappointing end to a turbulent and somewhat underwhelming two-season spell at a club where soap opera-style drama, on and off the field, is rarely far away given the presence of other superstars like Kylian Mbappe and Neymar in the squad.

Lionel Messi will leave Paris Saint-Germain at the end of the season __ pic.twitter.com/ytearxFyZH — Sky Sports News (@SkySportsNews) May 4, 2023

It also exposes the tensions now that Qatar and Saudi Arabia – Gulf neighbors and fierce recent rivals in regional politics – have become major influencers in the world of soccer.

Messi is right in the middle of it all, through his own making and because everyone – inside and outside the game – wants a piece of one of the all-time greats. The Argentina forward never intended to be playing for PSG, a club owned by Qatar Sports Investments, but found himself moving there in 2021 after previous team Barcelona, the soccer love of his life, plunged into financial problems that still persist.

Immediately, it thrust Messi into the hands of the Qataris, given QSI is a subsidiary of the emirate's sovereign wealth fund, and invited accusations against him of sportswashing.

Lionel Messi is brand ambassador for Saudi Arabia

Messi placed himself in an even more delicate position last year when, just a few months before the World Cup in Qatar, he signed up to be essentially an ambassador for Saudi Arabia. Hence this week’s trip to the kingdom, which he decided to make without PSG’s permission and covering a period when the squad had been asked to train in response to the team's 3-1 loss at home against Lorient on Sunday.

According to French daily L’Equipe, PSG coach Christophe Galtier had pledged to give his players Monday and Tuesday off if they beat Lorient. Instead, the team trained on Monday and had Tuesday off.

In the wake of Messi’s resulting suspension, the Saudi Tourism Authority released a long statement detailing the movements of the man it called a ‘football icon’ and his family on a day he was supposed to still be in France. Other aspects of the trip included ‘feeding the indigenous Arabian gazelles’, while the Messis apparently also were ‘charmed by the authenticity and architecture of At-Turaif and the beauty of the Arabian horses’.

It would make interesting reading for PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi, chairman of QSI and beIN Media Group, which has been the victim of broadcasting piracy in Saudi Arabia in recent years.

Indeed, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are engaged in a proxy battle to be the epicenter of Asian soccer. The presidency of the Asian Football Confederation is vacant in 2027 and both have potential candidates lined up.