“There was a break”: Lionel Messi looks back on his complicated relationship with PSG supporters

2023-06-25 01:48:14

Feelings already shared and regrets seem to be over two frustrating years, yet started under good auspices. Saturday, in an interview with beIN Sports, Lionel Messi returned to his two years in Paris. Arrived in the French capital in August 2021, and welcomed like a rock star on the tarmac at Le Bourget airport, the former Barcelona player and now Inter Miami player first saw his arrival acclaimed by PSG supporters. .

However, a few weeks later, “La Pulga” does not seem at best morally, and on the ground. “It was a difficult adaptation, recognizes number 10. I arrived late, I had no pre-season preparation with a new club, another way of playing, new teammates, a new life, everything it made my adaptation difficult at the beginning, same for my family. »

Then, his year became even more complex due to a period when the Argentinian was ill. “After… in December when I went on vacation to Argentina, I contracted the Covid. That’s when I saw that my return would not be the same. After a month almost at a standstill, without training, it took me a long time to get back in shape and physically, it was a very complicated year in general, ”admits Lionel Messi.

The second season leaves, it, on better bases. The seven-time Ballon d’Or has made its mark and had a quieter summer than the previous one, and it shows on the pitch. “Of course the start of the following season was very good, he recalls. Because I have already been able to do the pre-season preparation unlike the year before, I was there at the start with my teammates, with a lot of new players, departures too. An adaptation to a new style of play, with a new coach. But I felt very good. Everything went well at the beginning starting the season in a different way, enjoying this city more and more day by day, enjoying life at the club and getting to know everyone a little better. »

“People started treating me differently”

Unfortunately, there will never have been an idyll … And in particular because the primary objective of the Parisian leaders in bringing Lionel Messi to the club was to bring back a Champions League. Trophy that the Argentinian will not have succeeded in offering to Parisian fans. “The Champions League was painful, I couldn’t reach it in my two years, recalls Messi. It’s a big disappointment but as I said, the championship is also important, you win it. But the club wants a Champions League. »

If Messi was expected as a savior and treated as such at the start of his Parisian adventure by the supporters, the end of his epic turns into an ordeal. “At first it was great, I received a lot of encouragement but then people started to treat me differently, part of the public in Paris. The majority, she treated me well, but there was a break with a good part of the public of Paris ”, regrets the world champion.

However, the Argentinian does not remain bitter: “I remember all those people who supported me, as it was at the start. The rest is more anecdotal. “Especially that in these two seasons, although in club it was complicated, “La Pulga” finally realized his dream at the international level: “I achieved the most important objective for me, to win the World Cup. I never thought about individual rewards, I always put the collective before everything, and to have been able to achieve this goal, it comes to close an extraordinary career. “His time in Paris, he will probably not remain so.