Revolution on the horizon at PSG

Opinion

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This article was published 05/05/2023 (856 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PARIS—Lionel Messi is back in town. We think. For the time being. Probably.

Less than 24 hours after his Paris Saint-Germain side’s 3-1 loss at home to Lorient, the World Cup winner was attending a palm-weaving demonstration and having his picture taken with a gazelle. Everybody has a side hustle these days, and Messi’s happens to be a travel agency in Saudi Arabia.

Only, his regular, full-time employer has become concerned that this moonlighting in the gig economy is starting to effect his performance at work. It wasn’t lost on them — or anyone, for that matter — that the 35-year-old’s display over 90 minutes on Sunday was his worst of the season. Instead of recovering Monday and reporting back for training Tuesday, his private jet was touching down in Riyadh.

Serious employers that they are, PSG wasted no time in suspending their superstar for two weeks without pay. A public already riled by pension reforms and seething after May Day demonstrations found a regime to overthrow.

Hints of the nascent revolution appeared Tuesday at the Camp des Loges training centre when one of the club’s many gangs of ultra supporters unveiled a protest banner — something that would’ve happened even without the Messi fiasco.

A day later, however, with the Argentine largely perceived to have disrespected Les Parisiens, the ultra movement took on an added fury, and at least 400 angry thugs turned up at PSG’s administrative offices in Boulogne-Billancourt.

“Thugs” is actually a polite generalization of these lowlifes, some of whom then congregated, dressed in black, outside Neymar’s home in Bougival.

After a few mischievous songs they quickly dispersed, their bravery reaching its limit when they thought the police might arrive. Not exactly Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People, this lot.

Now, there’s likely to be a real, strategized revolution at PSG, and it has nothing to do with the ultras, whose pathetic depths drill even deeper when they fight amongst themselves. It’s happened before and it’s happening now. No, this will very much be an internal reformation, and it’s been in the works at least as far back as February’s Champions League defeat to Bayern Munich at Parc-des-Princes.

As L’Equipe’s Loic Tanzi explained in an online Q&A during the week, rather than acquiescing to their big-name players as they have in the past (remember Neymar’s birthday party?), this time PSG not only sanctioned the offender but also used his behaviour as the quill and ink for drawing a line between two very different organizational visions.

The ‘End of an Era’ headline on Wednesday’s front page of L’Equipe had less to do with Messi’s inevitable exit than a departure from the free-spending approach that has so far defined the club under Nasser Al-Khelaifi’s ownership.

Instead, all indications point to a freshened, French-first, developmental scheme that will value the likes of Warren Zaire-Emery, Ismael Gharbi and Hugo Ekitike over Marco Verratti, Neymar and Messi.

That’s not to say that Les Rouge-et-Bleu will abandon their pursuits of recognized stars. The immense resources at their disposal will always be there for them to tap. But going forward such signings will augment younger, homegrown talent; not the other way around.

In other words, when Messi leaves on a free transfer at season’s end (Neymar’s contract expires the year after next), PSG will terminate the existing republic and declare a new one. It’ll include a new manager, more motivated players and a vastly trimmed squad. The press, at least, is in full support of the transformation.

Messi might’ve been hailed as the hero who would conquer the Champions League for the club when he arrived in the summer of 2021. Not quite 21 months later he’d be chased from the city if anyone could find him.

Nevermind the sport dailies. He’s also been mugging the front pages of Le Parisienne and Le Figaro, which is quite the accomplishment when you have to be so bad as to fight pitched battles with the police or invade Ukraine to earn the honour.

A recent poll has nearly 90 per cent of PSG fans approving of Messi’s suspension, and no doubt a similar number would shrug their shoulders if asked for an opinion as to his next destination — that is, his next footballing destination. They simply don’t care. Not many do.

Messi’s very presence in Saudi Arabia naturally inflated existing rumours that he’ll shortly agree a move to Riyadh’s Al-Hilal. The Kingdom can’t seem to resist the idea of pitting him once again against Cristiano Ronaldo, who joined Al-Nassr in January. Though, as a promotional proposition, the head-to-head would have a certain Pacquiao-Mayweather Jr. feel to it.

It’d be nothing more than a gimmick — something Ronaldo already is. Sadly though not unexpectedly, Messi could well be set to join him at the circus.

It’s where, judging by these last few raucous days, he wants to be found.

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