PSG’s Plan To Stop Lionel Messi Returning To FC Barcelona In 2023

Paris Saint Germain have devised a plan to stop Lionel Messi from rejoining FC Barcelona next summer.

The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner joined the Ligue 1 giants from boyhood club Barca in the summer of 2021, when the Catalans failed to navigate a strict La Liga salary cap and offer him a new contract.

Messi therefore walked to the Parc des Princes free of charge, and though he endured a rocky maiden campaign in the French capital, he has started 2022/2023 in blistering form with six goals and eight assists across eleven domestic and European matches in the Champions League.

The veteran joined his Qatari-backed employers on a two-term deal which expires on June, 2023.

With this in mind, Barca are already looking at the possibility of recapturing their greatest ever player and having him retire, from European football at least, in Blaugrana.

“It would be possible financially because if he returned it would be as a free agent,” Barça vice president Eduard Romeu said this week.

“But it’s a decision which has to be made by the coaching staff and the player. It doesn’t correspond to me [to make those decisions], but it would be viable.”

Barca head coach Xavi Hernandez is said to be on board with commanding his former teammate from Pep Guardiola and Luis Enrique’s serial trophy-winning dynasties.

Yet according to SPORT and Cadena SER, PSG are ready to hijack any potential plan brewing at Camp Nou by offering Messi an attractive two-year extension.

In short, Messi would be paid something close to the €30mn ($29.4mn) per year he currently takes home in Paris, which might be a problem for Barca to meet.

Under a fresh policy devised by president Joan Laporta, it is said that no star plying his trade with the Catalans earns more than €10mn ($9.8mn) a year which includes Robert Lewandowski. Though due to a deal cut with Laporta’s predecessor Josep Bartomeu in October 2020, midfielder Frenkie de Jong is tipped to earn €18mn ($17.6mn) this season.

Barca might make an exception for Messi, with money saved, as Romeu pointed out, due to the lack of a transfer fee.