It has been a challenging eight months for Lionel Messi. Despite savouring sweet success — Argentina’s Copa America triumph, after which he said, “I needed to remove from myself the thorn of achieving something with the national team”, and a record-extending seventh Ballon d’Or — the 34-year-old has dealt with the most tumultuous period of his professional career: the end of a 20-year relationship with Barcelona, his boyhood club.
“This is all like a bucket of cold water has been poured over me and we are still coming to terms with it,” Messi said at his teary Barcelona exit last year even as hundreds of fans, many wearing his No. 10 jersey, massed outside Camp Nou to bid farewell. “I tried to behave with humility and respect and I hope that is what remains of me when I leave the club.”
The move to Paris Saint-Germain was a consequence of the financial mess Barcelona found itself in — its debt had risen to €1.35 billion, the player-wage bill had ballooned out of control and it could not give its biggest global icon a new contract that would fit within LaLiga’s strict financial fair-play regulations. This was even after Messi had reportedly agreed to a 50% pay cut.
It’s impossible to estimate the emotional cost of the separation. The club continues to be affected by the loss of a player the fans called ‘Messiah’. At Camp Nou, his memory has lingered heavily despite the removal of a giant photograph of the Argentine superstar from the entrance. There have been banners expressing “eternal gratitude” and chants of “Messi! Messi!”. Fans have admitted that it has felt like “a leap into the unknown”. Perhaps Gerard Pique summed it up best: “Nothing will ever be the same, not Camp Nou, not the city of Barcelona, not even ourselves.”
Pique could well have added “and not Messi himself”. For, the erstwhile Barca No. 10 has had a tricky start to life in Paris, looking at times, if media reports are to be believed, like a pale shadow of himself. After his formal unveiling — he ran onto the pitch at the Parc des Princes to a rapturous reception from 48,000 fans — Messi has spent considerable time dealing with a left hamstring issue, a knee injury and, more recently, a bout of COVID (“the roughest variant”).
His first appearance for PSG was delayed — he missed two Ligue 1 games after arriving in the French capital as he continued to work up his fitness having returned to training late after captaining Argentina to Copa America glory. He finally made a low-key debut as a substitute, wearing the No. 30 jersey in a 2-0 win over Reims. He had a more memorable home debut, outshining his team-mates in a 2-1 victory against Lyon, even if he did not find the back of the net.
After three goalless games, Messi opened his account in the Champions League against former manager Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City. It was a significant strike, too, enabling a 2-0 win. Messi’s goal was both stunning and typical: he burst forward from the right and played a one-two with Kylian Mbappe on the edge of the box, holding off Aymeric Laporte before sending a first-time strike high into the net. It raised the roof at the Parc des Princes. “It’s true that I was getting desperate to score my first goal,” Messi admitted to broadcaster Canal Plus .
His record in Europe this season has been impressive (five goals in five games), but he has played almost double the minutes in Ligue 1 for just one goal. He has also looked closest to his Barcelona self in the Champions League. Against Belgian champion Club Brugge last December, he produced his best all-around performance in Paris colours. In Neymar’s absence, he scored twice in the 4-1 win, also shaping PSG’s play with his dribbling, acceleration and pinpoint setups. He showed that he remains one of the world’s very best at influencing multiple facets of a game.
That performance — indeed, his efficiency on European nights — has PSG fans and management excited, for the Champions League was a major consideration when signing him. “My goal and dream is to raise another Champion’s [League Trophy] and I believe that I am in the right place,” he had said, making no secret of his desire for a fifth European cup, after penning a two-year contract with the option of a third season.
“Sometimes you can have the best team in the world and not win. That’s football,” said Messi, who won 35 trophies in total with Barcelona. “The Champions League is a competition in which the best teams take part and the best team doesn’t always win. But when you see this [PSG] squad, you really want to play with them because there are so many possibilities. We have the same goal.”
And yet, despite what he has done in Europe, pundits have not been able to shake off the feeling that Messi’s time in Paris has felt “underwhelming”; sports daily L'Equipe described one of his performances as “ghost-like”. Perhaps it’s the lack of Ligue 1 goals. After ending the 2020-21 LaLiga season with a league-leading 30 goals in 35 games, just the solitary goal in 12 appearances in the French top-flight looks dire.
Messi has taken fewer shots per game: 3.7 in Ligue 1 this season, compared with an average of over 5 in recent Liga seasons. His 4.93 xG (expected goals) shows that he has not managed the same efficiency in converting his chances when he does take the shots. While he has continued to set up goals at a high rate in league games — six assists in 12 appearances — he is not completing the volume of dribbles fans have become accustomed to seeing. His 2.2 dribbles per game in 2021-22 are his lowest-ever in a league season, 1.3 per game fewer than his 2015-16 season with Barcelona.
His Ligue 1 numbers suggest that while he isn’t struggling overall, he is not at his best. In a physical league renowned for its defensive strength, the diminutive player has not quite found his rhythm. There have been difficulties off the pitch as well. “I’ll be surrounded by my loved ones and I’ll carry on playing football, and when I do so, I’m sure it’ll become a bit easier,” Messi had said about coming to terms with a Barcelona-shaped hole. But reports suggest it hasn’t been easy for the young Messi family to adapt to life in Paris after the abrupt, heartbreaking departure.
Messi’s lack of elite efficiency so far has not hurt PSG’s ambitions, however — the club leads Ligue 1 by 11 points and is well placed to regain the title it lost to Lille last season. And if Messi can find his best more consistently and summon his genius in big moments, the Champions League may no longer remain just a dream for the French club.
