Adding Messi would just be unfair.
All the talk so far has been about Manchester City. Following the shock news at the beginning of the week that the great Lionel Messi had finally had enough of Barcelona and was determined to look for pastures new, the smart money has been on the Argentine joining former manager Pep Guardiola and Barca alumni Txiki Begiristain and Ferran Soriano at the Etihad. With Uefa’s FFP rules being loosened this summer due to the coronavirus pandemic, everything seemed to be coming together perfectly for a high profile move to Manchester.
Of course there was always other clubs bound to be interested, with Inter Milan, Chelsea and even Manchester United mentioned as possible destinations for the greatest footballer of all time, but it was hard to see beyond a move to the blue side of Manchester. The feeling was that the financial, structural, sporting, and most importantly, personal attractions all made sense. Pep knows Leo and Leo knows Pep. It is a team that plays in a similar manner to Barca in their heyday and one geared to compete for major honours both at home and abroad. But now a fresh twist could mean that Messi’s future lies elsewhere – but again with familiar faces who will help him settle in.
That’s because respected French journalist Julien Laurens reports that Paris Saint-Germain have sounded out Messi through his former colleague and respected friend Neymar. He reports that sources have told ESPN that the Brazilian forward spoke to Messi over the phone on Thursday about the prospect of joining forces in the French capital. Furthermore, Messi’s close friend and Argentina teammate Angel Di Maria has also apparently spoken to his captain about joining PSG. It throws up the mouth-watering prospect of a Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappé forward line. Some may even argue that between them those three incorporate the current greatest in the world with the two most likely to take his crown.
