Connect with us

Sports

Messi: Fallout With PSG Fans, My Story

Published

on

Spread the love

Lionel Messi has spoken of a ‘break with the fans’ at the end of his time at Paris Saint-Germain after agreeing to join Inter Miami.

 

After leaving his boyhood club Barcelona in 2021, Messi scored 32 goals across two seasons at the Parc des Princes, winning two Ligue 1 titles.

He failed to bring European success to the side, though as the French giants were eliminated at the round of 16 of the Champions League in 2022 and 2023.

 

That, combined with his role in Argentina’s World Cup final win over France and an unauthorised trip to Saudi Arabia that saw him suspended for two weeks, meant the fans in Paris never took to Messi in the way they had in Barcelona.

 

The 36-year-old was booed by his own supporters after losing to Clermont in his final PSG game earlier this month.

 

Messi has now reflected on his decision to join the French giants two years ago. In an interview with beIN Sports, he said: ‘I came to Paris because I liked the club, because I had friends and a lot of people I knew in the dressing room, teammates from the national team or some I had been with before.’

 

‘It seemed to me that, beyond what the club was, I was going to have a much easier adaptation than in other teams I could have gone to, so that’s a little bit why I decided to go to the club.’

 

After a tearful goodbye in Barcelona, the forward found his new surroundings trickier than he had anticipated, as he explained: ‘The truth is that it was a very difficult adaptation, much more than I expected.

 

‘Apart from the fact that I had people I knew in the dressing room and I had relations with them, it was complicated to adapt to a new change. I arrived late, I didn’t have a pre-season. I had to adapt to a new city, which was difficult for my family and for me.’

 

Messi’s early struggles in Paris were reflected in his form, as he scored just six league goals in his first season after netting 30 in his last year at Barcelona.

 

Things picked up after the summer as the Argentine legend managed 16 league goals in 2022/23, but some fans were unconvinced.

 

‘People started to treat me differently,’ Messi continued. ‘Part of the PSG crowd, the rest and the majority still treated me as they did at the beginning, but there was a break with the PSG fans.

 

‘It wasn’t my intention, far from it, to generate that break. It also happened with Neymar or [Kylian] Mbappe before.’

 

Messi will now join Miami, who find themselves in need of his talent after slipping to the bottom of the MLS’ Eastern Conference.

 

They have won just five of their opening 17 games, and sacked manager Phil Neville earlier this month.

 

There is another Barca legend joining the club, as Inter announced the signing of Sergio Busquets on Friday.

 

The midfielder played over 700 games for the Catalan giants, and shared a dressing room with Messi for 13 years.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Sports

Leicester City Put Up For Sale

Published

on

Spread the love

 

General view of a Leicester City sign from the front of King Power StadiumLeicester City are looking to sell the club for more than £200m, with its Thai owners King Power ready to leave after 16 years.

 

The Foxes have had an eight-page sales booklet produced by a leading US investment bank to help offload the one-time Premier League title winners.

Citigroup lists the Foxes, its women’s team, and other major assets – including the 32,000-seat King Power Stadium and its Seagrave training facility which was opened in 2020 and is valued at £121m – as well as OH Leuven, Leicester’s Belgian sister club, as up for sale in a brochure titled ‘Project Lineup’.

The document, seen by BBC Sport, values the club’s physical assets at more than £200m, though no specific sum has been attributed to the sale of its struggling teams.

The brochure speaks of “a rare opportunity to acquire a club with an excellent track record of winning promotions to higher divisions”.

Leicester’s successes, including the 5,000-1 Premier League title win of 2016 and the FA Cup triumph five years later, are well promoted in the brochure, while their place in League One, after back-to-back relegations from the top flight and the Championship, fail to get a mention.

The club’s turnover, which Citigroup forecast to be more than £97m for the 2026 financial year are also part of the pitch, but the years of financial losses and the club’s debts – which, as outlined in its 2025 accounts, include £103.6m in bank loans – are omitted.

In the years that the club yo-yoed between the Premier League and Championship, with two relegations from the top flight in three years between 2023 and 2025, the club lost more than £180m.

King Power, run by the Srivaddhanaprabha family, bought Leicester for £35m from Milan Mandaric in 2010.

Khun Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha is currently chairman after his father Khun Vichai died in a helicopter crash outside the stadium in 2019.

Efforts to put the third-tier club up for sale were first reported in the Financial Times, external in July, but the product brochure now being circulated to prospective buyers is public confirmation that new investors are being sought.

The sale process comes just eight months on from Khun Top saying he is shouldering the blame for the club’s drastic recent demise.

There have been growing calls from disgruntled fans for the club to be sold, with the most vocal showing coming outside King Power Stadium after relegation from the Championship was confirmed last season.

Leicester’s struggles in recent years have come at a time when the King Power duty-free business in Thailand, which has been intrinsically linked to the club since the Srivaddhanaprabha family bought the Foxes, has also endured financial difficulties.

Despite the club’s issues, Leicester City is being positioned for sale as one of only five clubs to have won all three major English trophies – the Premier League, the FA Cup and the League Cup – since 2000.

The document also outlines the potential of the club’s academy, stating the Foxes have a “strong talent pipeline backed by leading scouting infrastructure, active transfer management and highly developed academy system consistently producing top players”.

Leicester sold academy graduate Jeremy Monga to Manchester City for £10m last month.

Leicester, relegated to League One for just the second time in their history last season, will start their latest campaign in the third tier under head coach Russell Martin at Notts County on Saturday.

Continue Reading

Sports

Amorim Wants Tomori, Nkunku 6 Other AC Milan Stars Out Of Club

Published

on

Spread the love

 

AC Milan coach Ruben Amorim has decided Fikayo Tomori and Christopher Nkunku do not figure in his plans this season.

 

David Odogu, Pervis Estupinan, Santiago Gimenez and Philip Terracciano are also expected to leave after Amorim held a crunch meeting with club bosses on Thursday.

The Portuguese, who was dismissed by United in January following a dismal 14 months in charge, accepted the task of transforming Milan’s fortunes – with the Italian giants finishing fifth last season.

He is set for a reunion with his old side this weekend in Poland, where he will search for his first win in charge of his new club having failed to register a victory in pre-season.

A 2-2 draw with Scottish champions Celtic was followed by a 1-1 tie with fierce rivals Inter Milan, before Xabi Alonso’s Chelsea put three goals past the Portuguese’s side in a woeful result in Jakarta.

But Amorim is ready to embrace the challenge, and suggested that his task at the San Siro is even greater than his job at Old Trafford.

‘I’m really very happy to be here, it’s an honour to be the coach of Milan,’ he said.

‘Why did I choose Milan? If you read an old interview of mine you will understand it, for me a special club.

‘It’s a very big challenge that I accepted even if after the last one [at Manchester United] I told myself to accept a smaller one.

‘Perhaps it is a greater challenge than the last. I’m proud to be here, we all are, me and my staff.

‘I’m at Milan to win, if you’re Milan coach you have to have this mentality,’ he added.

‘I’m not naive, I know there’s a lot of work to do, but if you’re the Milan coach you have to play to win.’

Continue Reading

Sports

Transfer: Man Utd Name 6 Clubs Rashford Can’t Join

Published

on

Spread the love

 

Manchester United co-owner, Sir Jim Ratcliffe, has blocked Marcus Rashford from joining any direct Premier League rival.

 

According to the UK Mirror, the Red Devils are determined to avoid a scenario where Rashford shines at a domestic competitor.

The 28-year-old is back at Carrington for pre-season training following a loan spell at Barcelona, but his long-term future at Old Trafford remains uncertain.

Ratcliffe wants to remove Rashford from United’s wage bill, but he won’t sanction a move to the likes of Arsenal, Manchester City or Liverpool

The restrictions extend to loan inquiries, as Chelsea, Aston Villa and Tottenham Hotspur have been rebuffed.

There is fear among United senior officials that Rashford could prove instrumental in helping a rival secure a Champions League spot, a scenario that would be viewed as ’embarrassing’ by the club’s top brass.

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2026 TheColumn NG