The divorce between Messi and PSG is a complex problem that can be explained by simple causes. The main one is the responsibility of Leonardo -and now Luis Campos-, the sports directors of the Parisian club, who never learned the long lesson that Argentina left before Scaloni in more than a decade of sorrows. For Messi to function as a star, he needs a team formed to serve him.
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Otherwise, his uniqueness is not functional in a conventional tactical structure. In that sense, PSG has never managed to manage the wealth of its squad to the point where it couldn't even define its leadership, initially divided between the Argentine, Mbappé, and Neymar, and then becoming a battle between the young French star and the reigning World Cup champion.
The second problem was tactical: Pochettino and Galtier did not build their squads to divert the game in various directions. One was towards the 10, usually stuck on the right, but there were also other lines of development through the wings (Di Maria, Neymar) or towards the number 9 (Mbappé, Icardi). The result of that lack of concentration was that Messi had fewer and fewer chances to assist and score, and also less prominence in the playmaking. The scheme is relevant: Messi is not a conventional forward and his movements, especially when he makes the diagonal from the wing to the center or when he plays as a false 9, require his teammates to occupy spaces. The best example is how the full-backs become winger-full-backs with a goal-scoring vocation (Alves, Alba, or Molina). Rarely at PSG has he had that support or that flexibility.
Jorge Messi, father and agent of the footballer, published a statement denying the information: "There is absolutely nothing with any club for next year. The decision will never be made before Lionel finishes the league with PSG," reads the Instagram story. "Once the season is over, it will be time to analyze and see what is out there, and then make a decision," he added.
The third problem was ambition. While PSG, with the naivety of the nouveau riche, believed that football success was built through the accumulation of stars, Messi's personal goal, satisfied with glory in Barcelona, was already outside the heat of club competition and focused basically on his national team. That difference in objectives, quite evident in the last couple of years, is enough to understand why Parisian fans resent the figures who were unable to achieve the only self-imposed objective: winning the Champions League. If we add to that retirement-related commitments, such as tourist representation in Saudi Arabia, the exasperation should not be surprising.
That being said, can a possible return of Messi to Barcelona restore the best version of both? Hardly. The Barca he would return to is financially precarious, with a second-rate squad in many positions, with gameplay dynamics that are alien to him and that do not in any way resemble the times of Guardiola or Vilanova. Messi, if he strictly thought about his career, should look for an economically robust club that practices a game that is natural to him and that has an environment that emotionally shelters him. That is, Manchester City (imagining him alongside Haaland is a case of bullying). But logic is rarely fulfilled in football, and sometimes nostalgia prevails, which is always bad advice.
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