Happiness at work is a subject in the air, even at Paris Saint-Germain, at least as much as traveling by private plane in a period of energy sobriety. Since the start of the season, Lionel Messi is finally a fulfilled 35-year-old employee and still hopes to prove it with his next professional trip, to Lisbon, to face Benfica, during the 3e Champions League day, this Wednesday, October 6.
However, a Messi well in his head and his crampons is a Messi found, according to Christophe Galtier. ” The relationship he has with his partners in training sessions suggests that he is happy, and when he is happy, he performs and regains the standards he has had throughout his career. summarized the Parisian coach after the victory against Nice (2-1).
Saturday 1er October, the Argentinian even found the instructions for the unstoppable direct free kick, a document that we thought had been forgotten in Barcelona. It was his first with PSG, but the sixtieth of his career for the one whose former teammate in Catalonia, defender Nelson Semedo, confided one day that he had not yet never seen Messi practice there in training. Talent, no doubt. Still, the quality of the shot is often considered a good indicator of the form of a footballer. If this is the case, one thing is clear: the sevenfold Ballon d’Or is going much better than during a disappointing first season and perceived as that of an inexorable decline and a failed marriage of convenience between the star and Paris. .
Market opportunity
Messi was the child and the man of one club, this Barça joined at 13 and left twenty-one years (and 667 goals) later, full of tears and regrets. An annual salary of 30 million euros does not protect against nostalgia. The native of Rosario experienced this departure from Barcelona as a second uprooting. At the end of May, he opened up about it in an interview for the Argentine channel TyCSPorts. “If the children adapted perfectly to their new life, Antonella and I had more difficulty. On the children’s first day at school, we cried. We were like, “What are we doing here? What happened ?” It has been a change and a difficult year. When you’ve been in one place your whole life, especially at my age, it’s not easy. »
But the thesis of necessary adaptation does not say everything. The Argentinian’s (free) arrival was a market opportunity. Of the one who does not refuse. Problem, it was not prepared and thought within the framework of a collective balance. This is not the first time for PSG, and Messi gave the impression of looking for his place and his football under the orders of Mauricio Pochettino, coach of PSG during the 2021-2022 season. There were the numbers (six league goals for someone who had trivialized the seasons at thirty or more) and the general impression. Often exiled to the right side of the attack, Messi was like a deposed emperor on Saint Helena.
“When Leo smiles, the team smiles too”
As soon as he arrived this summer, Christophe Galtier put the 30-year-old back at the heart of the game, in an old-fashioned number 10 position, in support of Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, with a 3-4-1 system. 2. During the pre-season camp in Japan, the two men discussed the subject a lot and Galtier praised “the very keen tactical sense ” of the former Barça. Another way of saying that the player knows what’s good for him and that his predecessor’s 4-3-3 was not the best fit for the Messi of 2022. “When Leo smiles, the team smiles too”, summarized the new Parisian coach, in August, to justify this choice.
Why didn’t you think of it before then? In his defense, the much criticized Pochettino did not have under his orders this Messi with regained legs and breath. Arriving in France unprepared last summer, the striker ran behind his form between two round trips to Argentina to compete in World Cup qualifying, a knee injury and a Covid contracted at Christmas with its complications. “It left scars in my lungs,” confided the person concerned, in May.
At Messi, the technical genius often makes us forget the importance of the physical, including this famous “stroke of kidneys”. Deprived of this ability to change pace with a few presses, the left-hander had become a stationary dribbler, a racing car stuck in second gear. Today, the Argentinian racing car is rushing again and its statistics are running at levels more worthy of its talent (six goals in eleven games). Sometimes replaced (without complaining too much) but still a starter, he is especially expected in February, during the final stages of the Champions League.
A sentence that applies to Neymar, Mbappé and all the stars recruited and passed by PSG for a decade. But until then, “La Pulga” also lives, eats and runs to finally win this third star of world champion for his country, the first for him. When he returns from his Qatari stay, it will be time to move forward on the question of his future in Paris.
There is an optional contract year left at the player’s discretion. “Very happy with Leo”, Luis Campos is not against the idea of seeing it extended. ” I told him that I hoped he would stay for the three years of my contract. revealed the club’s very influential sports advisor, interviewed by RMC, in September. Nothing concrete yet, but bringing up the idea already proves that, in the minds of the PSG management, Messi is not just selling shirts in his name. He still knows how to be decisive to win matches. As it almost always has been.