PSG: it’s official, Marco Verratti has signed for Al-Arabi

2023-09-13 18:31:51

It’s a page in the history of PSG that is turning. After eleven seasons spent in the capital, Marco Verratti, 30, officially signed up with the Qatari team Al-Arabi after successfully completing his medical examination on Tuesday. There he will meet his former teammate, Abdou Diallo, who also joined this club during the summer. He will wear number 7 and his annual salary is estimated at more than €24.5 million according to the Sports Zone website.

The officialization of the transfer of PSG’s second most capped player (416 matches played behind Jean-Marc Pilorget and his 435 meetings) concludes a long series which began during the summer. Marco Verratti was told by sporting director Luis Campos and his coach Luis Enrique that he was no longer part of the club’s plans, despite a contract extension signed until 2026 last December. The door to departure was therefore open. While his initial desire was to stay in Paris, the player gradually came to terms with the idea of ​​leaving after more than a decade in Paris and a complicated last season.

Once courted by Saudi Arabia, the 2021 European champion was excluded from the Parisian group during the first three days of the championship while waiting for his situation on the transfer market to settle down. It is now done.

“I will be Parisian forever”

The departure of Marco Verratti to Qatar marks the end of an era. Arriving in 2012 from the Italian club time.news in complete discretion, the transalpine international (55 caps) had become over time a striking figure in this PSG version QSI, an essential player, both whimsical and annoying due to his large number of warnings received and his repeated physical glitches.

But his mark in the history of PSG remains indelible by his ability to support the Parisian midfielder over all these years and by his unique record. In eleven seasons in the red and blue jersey, Verratti has compiled 30 trophies including nine French Championships, a record in the history of French football. While he was 20 games short of becoming the capital club’s most capped player, the Italian left Paris with a feeling of unfinished business.

Via a PSG press release, Verratti said that he was “very proud to wear the colors of Paris Saint-Germain for more than a decade, to rub shoulders with so many great players, and to win 30 trophies”. Before concluding: “I will be Parisian forever”. In this same press release, Nasser Al-Khelaifi underlines that the Italian “played a major role” in the history of the club. “I will never forget his arrival in 2012 at the age of 19,” declared the Qatari president. Since then, he has always been there for the Club, giving his whole heart on the pitch and achieving so many great things with us. (…) He will always be part of the Club.

In an interview with L’Equipe, Blaise Matuidi, who formed a famous midfielder with Verratti and Thiago Motta in the 2010s, said this about his former Italian teammate: “In my eyes, given the titles he has won, Marco marked the history of PSG. As a former teammate, he impressed me with his talent, his humility, above all, and his simplicity.”