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Lionel Messi said his farewell to FC Barcelona on Sunday after 21 years with one of the biggest football clubs in the world, and the Argentine star is said to have his next shot in sight.
According to several reports, including The Guardian and ESPN, Messi is ready to join the French power of Paris Saint-Germain.
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His contract with the club is expected to last two years and will have an option for a third. Messi will join Brazilian star Neymar and French phenomenon Kylian Mbappe to form one of the deadliest attacks in Europe. PSG also brought in Spain star defender Sergio Ramos and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma earlier this summer.
PSG are still looking for their very first Champions League title. The club lost in the final and have been knocked out in the semi-finals twice in recent years. PSG also lost the Ligue 1 title to Lille in 2020-21, but they won the Coupe de France.
Barcelona announced Thursday that Messi will be leaving the club, shocking fans and clubs around the world. Messi has made it clear he is ‘disappointed’ with the way things have turned out, but he has come to terms with the reality of his leaving a club and city he has called home for 21 years.
MESSI IN TEARS AT A PRESS CONFERENCE, SAYS “I WANTED TO STAY” IN BARCELONA
“A lot of things went through my mind, and at the same time… I don’t know what to say,” a tearful Messi told reporters on Sunday. “I did not accept the reality of leaving this club and completely changing my life.”
Lionel Messi cries at the start of a press conference at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, Spain on Sunday, August 8, 2021. FC Barcelona previously announced that negotiations with Lionel Messi are over and that Messi will leave the club. (AP Photo / Jeanne Monfort)
(AP Photo / Joan Monfort)
At the press conference, Messi said he had always been ‘honest’ about his intentions in the process: he wanted to stay, but league rules made it impossible because Barcelona spent too much money to be able to sign Messi.
The only way Messi could continue would probably have been for the player to accept a significant pay cut so the club could pay his salary. As it stands, Barcelona’s immense debt of over € 1 billion – the result of recent attempts to overhaul the team in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and failures both in La Liga and Champions League – prevents Messi from staying.
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Messi said he proposed a 50% pay cut, which would have reduced his salary from around $ 1.4 million per week to just $ 700,000 per week – a salary that would be even lower than that of almost all other players.
Messi has been in the first team since his teenage debut in 2004.
“It will be a difficult change, but we will accept it and move forward,” Messi said.
Fox News’ Peter Aitken contributed to this report.
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