Messi’s Disappointing Stint with Saint-Germain: A Look Back

It is difficult to consider Messi’s period with Saint-Germain successful, even if his Parisian transfer helped him pave the way to win the World Cup title for the first time in his career with his country in Qatar at the end of 2022, and promoted the sports product of his team.

At the player’s presentation in August 2021 in Paris, Messi said winning the Champions League for the fifth time in his career was a “dream” for him, and he was “in the perfect place” to achieve it.

It was an enticing talk for the president of the Qatari club, Nasser Al-Khulaifi, who was sitting next to him, and for the fans eager to see Saint-Germain win the continental competition title for the first time in its history and the second in the history of French football after Marseille in 1993.

The capital team had been eliminated from the previous season’s competitions by losing to Manchester City in the semi-finals, and before that it reached the final, where it fell to Bayern Munich. Messi seemed like the missing piece to push Saint-Germain towards the lost title.

But Saint-Germain retreated with Messi, and he was bid farewell from the round of 16 against Real Madrid last season, when Argentine Mauricio Pochettino was supervising him, before he experienced the same fate this season at the hands of Bayern Munich, managed by coach Christophe Galtier.

Perhaps there is a logical argument for the inimitable Spanish coach Pep Guardiola not seeking to include the best player in the world seven times to his English team Manchester City, despite describing the player who shone for years under his supervision in Barcelona as the best in the history of the game.

Guardiola’s team reached the final of the Champions League this season, and next week it will meet Italian Inter. City, which is owned by the Emirates, offers a level that Saint-Germain cannot match, despite the latter’s inclusion of Messi, the Brazilian Neymar and the offensive jewel Kylian Mbappe, top scorer of the 2022 World Cup.

The missing chemistry between the three stars weakened Saint-Germain as a team. He now has to rebuild a squad without the player, who will turn thirty-six this month, and his annual salary is estimated at thirty million euros ($32.1 million) after taxes.

Disappointment after hopes

Since the beginning of this year, Saint-Germain fans have begun to whistle boos at Messi, at its Parc des Princes stadium.

After that, he missed the exercises for a marketing trip with his family for tourism in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. He was suspended for a week and apologized to his colleagues, and there was no indication that he would remain within the walls of Paris.

The native of Rosario scored 32 goals in 74 matches with Saint-Germain, before his team’s last match of the season, Saturday, against its guest, Clermont, in the local league, which secured its title.

His first season was difficult, and he struggled to adapt after 17 seasons with Barcelona. He sometimes had difficulty with the physical strength of the French League, but his second season was better.

He developed his understanding on the field with Mbappe, in light of the successive injuries to Neymar, and accepted the idea that Mbappe was the focal point of the team.

He scored 16 goals in the league and made 16 assists, to end his career with two league titles (League 1).

Justify the criticism?

After all his achievements with Barcelona and his country, the French League title may seem modest in Messi’s record of achievements.

As Vincent Duloc, a writer for the specialized daily newspaper L’Equipe, says, “Saint-Germain was never better than it was before because of him… He seemed to want to play in the French League as much as he wanted to visit the dentist.”

Nevertheless, Messi left his mark on the people who accompanied his French trip. He was nominated for the best player award in the league, despite the logical coronation of Mbappe later.

“I have had the privilege of coaching the best player in football history,” said his coach, Galtier, this week.

He continued, “He was an important part of the team this year. I was never convinced that the criticism towards him was justified. When he is thirty-five years old and wins the World Cup in the middle of the season, and I think he scored and assisted more than 40 goals in various competitions.”

Now is the time for both Saint-Germain and Messi to turn over a new leaf.