Argentina’s World Cup-winning coach Lionel Scaloni says he does not care where Lionel Messi plays his club football as long as he is comfortable and pleased.
After the Qatari-owned club punished him for taking a vacation to Saudi Arabia and skipping a training session, there has been considerable talk about Lionel Messi’s future at Paris Saint-Germain over the last week. The suspension came as a result of Messi’s absence from a training session.
The transfer to a Saudi club was reportedly a “done deal” according to French media on Tuesday. The report further said that the Argentina captain was in the process of finalizing details prior to signing a contract.
However, Messi’s father has denied that any kind of deal has been struck with another club and has said that there will be no choices taken until the conclusion of the current season.
“Let him go to where he will feel comfortable with his team mates and the club’s fans,” Scaloni told Qatar’s Al-Kass station.
“The matter does not affect us as a national team so long as he is happy when he joins us and we need him to be happy,” said the coach of the national team. “We need him to be happy.”
Messi, who apologised to PSG and his team mates last week, returned to training on Monday.
Reuters cited a source close to Messi as saying that the World Cup champion had been made a formal offer to join the Saudi side Al-Hilal for the next season. The source also said that a contract extension with PSG was not in the cards for the player.
Messi, who will be 36 in the next month, was named a tourist ambassador for the country that is rich in oil last year, and he traveled to Jeddah in May of 2022.
He returned in January to play a friendly match with PSG against a Saudi All Stars squad, which featured Cristiano Ronaldo – Messi’s challenger for the title of finest player of his generation.