Lionel Messi will be close to a 12th league title on Saturday if Paris Saint-Germain beat Lens at home to move nine points clear with seven games to play.
He will never have won a championship in such a toxic atmosphere.
At least the spotlight will be off of him in Saturday’s game. PSG coach Christophe Galtier received around 5,000 threatening messages, including some death threats, after accusations emerged this week that he made racist comments while coach at Nice last season.
RMC Sport claimed that an email sent by Julien Fournier, Nice Director of Football at the time, to an employee of INEOS, the company that owns Nice, mentioned Galtier complaining of ‘too many black and Muslim players’ in the squad.
Galtier strongly denies the accusation and is planning legal action.
Lionel Messi’s PSG are close to sealing another title, but the atmosphere at the club is toxic
PSG coach Christophe Galtier received threats after accusations he made racist comments
Paris Ultras demanded immediate dismissal if the accusations were substantiated but PSG are not opening an investigation. They have, however, put security on Galtier and his family after the threats.
The coach will be gone at the end of the season whatever happens. The big question is will Messi follow him out the door? And where will he go if he does?
A move to the MLS is not an option this summer. That leaves the riches of Saudi Arabia or the pauper’s path (relatively speaking) back to Barcelona.
Messi’s goal last week in PSG’s 2-0 win took him to a record-breaking 702 club goals scored in European football – one more than Cristiano Ronaldo.
The money is already on the table for him to resume football’s greatest individual rivalry. Reports from Saudi Arabia suggest he would be paid €400million (£357m) a season if he joins Al Hilal.
Playing in Europe will be better preparation for Messi ahead of the Copa America
The Saudi football revolution is to be taken seriously. Luka Modric and Sergio Ramos may join Ronaldo there this summer.
Messi already has a deal to promote tourism in Saudi Arabia. But his family want to go back to Barcelona and playing in Europe would be better for his preparation for next year’s Copa America.
Messi has an unwritten pact with Sergio Busquets that they will play one more season together somewhere. Busquets is currently waiting to decide whether or not to accept the offer of another year at Barcelona. Is his old pal coming back or not?
In 2021 Messi returned from a holiday in Ibiza convinced he was signing a new contract at Barcelona.
When the club stunned him by telling him the deal was off he felt betrayed and he hasn’t spoken to President Joan Laporta since.
But Messi’s father Jorge is in contact with Laporta and the two met in February to talk about the possibility of Messi playing a one-off match at the Camp Nou before it’s demolished.
Could a one-off game really be turned into a goodbye season?
The idea that Barcelona supporters and coach Xavi are completely sold on the idea is not entirely true.
Messi previously played with current Barcelona boss Xavi when he was a player for them
The chants of Messi’s name on 10 minutes of Barcelona’s last game provoked some whistles from other fans. And twice in recent press conferences Xavi has used the phrase ‘post-Messi era’.
The love for him is universal but not the belief that his return should become an obsession.
The Barca board’s next step is to present LaLiga with their budget for next season – from which the Spanish League will calculate the club’s permitted squad spend.
That’s when they will know if re-signing him, probably on a €10m (£9m) net salary matching Robert Lewandowski’s, is really feasible.
And if it isn’t, and Saudi Arabia doesn’t appeal to a player who wants to squeeze every last game out of his European career, then maybe the only third way is the Champs-Elysees – staying put in Paris.
If he adds to his tally of 19 goals and 18 assists on Saturday to help PSG all but seal Ligue 1 it might disperse some of the clouds over his relationship with the fans.
And if he stays he’ll be just down the road from the Theatre du Chatelet where next October he will receive his eighth Ballon d’Or.
The Argentine may find his route back to Barca blocked, and has no interest in Saudi Arabia
Chelsea won’t pay £88m Felix fee
Joao Felix trudged forlornly away from the Santiago Bernabeu on Wednesday night ignoring Spanish journalists attempts to interview him.
The following day one columnist in Madrid wrote that he was ‘everyday a little richer, and everyday a little less of a footballer.’
There was a big question to be answered when he left Atletico Madrid in January: Was Diego Simeone holding him back, or was he holding Simeone back? The evidence suggests that it was the latter.
Since January, Atletico Madrid have picked up more points and scored more goals than any team in La Liga.
Joao Felix doesn’t want to play for Simeone next season so a return seems unlikely.
Don’t rule out another season’s loan at Stamford Bridge if Chelsea refuse to pay Atletico’s 100m euros asking price.
The player has a contract at Atletico until 2027 and the way the club see it – better to park him somewhere next season in the hope his value rises than sell him at a big loss now.
Joao Felix does not want to stay at Atletico Madrid, but Chelsea may baulk at the £88m fee
Since Felix left on loan in January, Atletico Madrid have picked up more points than anyone
Brahim Diaz finally comes of age with A.C. Milan
Brahim Diaz was 14 years old when he signed for Manchester City from Malaga.
Five years later, after 15 appearances, he signed for Real Madrid but after just five league starts in two seasons they sent him on loan to Milan where he is about to complete his third season.
There have been some strange decisions along the way – thinking Madrid was a good club for a teenager needing game time, chief among them – but on Wednesday night he was man-of-the-match setting up the goal advantage that Milan take into Tuesday’s second leg against Napoli.
‘I was wrong about him,’ said Fabio Capello after the game. ‘I thought he wasn’t good enough for Milan’. Now at the grand old age of 23 Diaz appears to have the world at his feet, just as City suspected he would have one day when they snapped him up in 2013.
Brahim Diaz put in a man-of-the-match performance as AC. Milan beat Napoli on Wednesday
Mane still has a future in Germany
The calls to sack Sadio Mane have been loud in Germany but the player he punched, Leroy Sane, asked Bayern Munich’s sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic not to punish him too severely amid claims he provoked Mane’s rage with comments made prior to the punch.
Back in 2012, Franck Ribery punched Arjen Robben in the Bayern dressing room at half time and it didn’t stop them remaining team-mates who won trophies together. Mane might yet have a future at the Allianz Arena.
Sadio Mane may still have a future at Bayern Munich despite punching Leroy Sane in midweek
SRC: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/
