Messi’s PSG future in doubt after Saudi trip

Messi’s psg future in doubt after saudi trip0

Lionel Messi’s career with Paris Saint-Germain was thrown into serious jeopardy on Wednesday when the club suspended him for traveling to Saudi Arabia without the club’s permission. Messi is the best player in the world.

According to a source who is familiar with the disciplinary system, Argentina’s World Cup-winning captain, who is 35 years old and will be out of contract at the conclusion of the current season, would be benched for “several days.” However, numerous media outlets in France stated that he will be suspended for two weeks.

“He cannot train, cannot play, and will not be paid while disciplinary measures are in place,” the source stated further.

According to a second source, who also requested anonymity in exchange for their comments, the seven-time winner of the Ballon d’Or will “probably” be sidelined for two weeks since “nobody is more important than the club.”

On Sunday, PSG fell to Lorient 3-1 at home in Ligue 1 action. Messi participated throughout the entirety of the match. After that, he boarded a flight to Saudi Arabia in order to carry out the professional obligations that come with his position as a tourist ambassador for the Gulf state.

Messi “returned to Saudi for a second time, this time with his family,” according to a news release issued by the Saudi Tourism Authority on Wednesday. The press release also stated that Messi and his family had been given a demonstration of palm weaving and had fed Arabian gazelles during Messi’s visit.

As a consequence of the trip, Messi was unable to participate in the training session that was scheduled for the following Monday after the team’s loss over the weekend. On Tuesday, the PSG squad was granted the day off, and Lionel Messi did not participate in any training on either Wednesday or Thursday.

PSG was scheduled to resume league play on Sunday away at Troyes, a team that is currently floundering, but Messi might now miss that match. Should he be unable to play for the next two weeks, he would miss the home encounter against Ajaccio on May 13.

Messi’s current two-year contract will expire at the conclusion of this season, and the disciplinary actions taken against him make it even less likely that he will continue to play in the capital of France after that.

After it appeared for a while that he would extend his stay at the club for another year, a source with close ties to the club shared with AFP the previous month that he was now “much more likely” to leave the organization.

Messi moved to Qatar-backed Paris in 2021 after spending the bulk of his career with Barcelona, the team for whom he had previously played, but he has not been able to replicate the finest form of his career there. Despite this, he has scored 31 goals in 71 games across all competitions. His total number of appearances is 71.

He was recently jeered by a segment of the PSG crowd, who see him as a symbol of all the club has done wrong in focusing on superstar signings while failing to develop a truly competitive squad. They see him as a symbol of all the club has done wrong in focusing on superstar signings while failing to build a truly competitive side.

This season, Messi has scored 20 goals in all competitions, and he leads Ligue 1 in assists with 15. He currently has 15 assists to his name.

However, since he led Argentina to victory at the World Cup in Qatar, his form, along with that of the majority of the PSG team, has declined significantly. Their lackluster effort against Lorient resulted in their sixth loss in 17 matches played in Ligue 1 in 2023.

They have five games left to play, but they still have a five-point lead over Marseille at the top of the table, and as a result, they are still on track to win a record 11th French championship.

However, Bayern Munich eliminated them from the Champions League in the round of 16, and they also lost to Marseille in the round of 16 of the French Cup. Both of these defeats occurred at the same stage.

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