Lionel Messi yesterday said he wants to “build something special” at Paris Saint-Germain.
The 34-year-old superstar on Tuesday signed a two-year deal with Ligue 1 side PSG with the option of an additional year.
Messi, who is to wear No. 30 in Paris, the number he had when he began his professional career at Barca, was unveiled by PSG at a news conference.
Photo: Reuters
“That’s why I am here. It’s an ambitious club,” Messi told a news conference. “You can see they’re ready to fight for everything.”
“My dream is to win another Champions League, and I think this is the ideal place to be to do that,” he said.
The Argentine said he did not know when he would make his debut for the club given that he has not played since winning the Copa America with his country last month.
“I’m coming back from holiday, I’ve been a month off the pitch,” he said. “I need a bit of a pre-season and get myself going. Hopefully debuting can be soon, but I can’t give you a date. It’s up to the coaches.”
Messi on Sunday wept as he told Barcelona fans he was leaving.
“I’ll always be thankful to Barca and their fans,” he said. “I went there as a boy, and we had some good and bad times.”
“The Barca fans knew I’d join a good club, fighting for the Champions League, because they know me, I like to win, I’m a winner and I want to carry on doing that,” he said.
“I don’t doubt that PSG’s objectives is to win and grow,” Messi said. “It would be nice on the one hand to face them [Barca] in the Champions League, especially with fans, but on the other strange to go back to my home in another team’s shirt, but that’s football.”
Messi was given a hero’s welcome by PSG fans when he arrived in the French capital on Tuesday.
French Football League president Vincent Labrune yesterday hailed the surprise arrival of the six-time Ballon d’Or winner as “extraordinary news for the exposure of Ligue 1 internationally.”
“The arrival of Lionel Messi will increase the attractiveness and visibility of our league on all continents,” Labrune said, praising PSG’s leadership.
Messi, who was a free agent, landed at Le Bourget airport in the north of Paris.
He was greeted by hundreds of PSG supporters.
Fans also gathered outside the club’s Parc des Princes home and near a plush hotel in the city where Messi along with wife, Antonella, and their three children are expected to be staying.
The completion of his move closes a whirlwind few days following the announcement on Thursday last week that he would leave Barcelona, the club he has represented for the entirety of his 17-year professional career.
Reports in Spain on Monday talked of a “final offer” by Barcelona to try to keep the player.
Instead, Messi will join a PSG attack already featuring Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
Qatar-backed PSG see Messi as the missing piece in their jigsaw as they chase the Champions League, the trophy they want more than anything else.
“Back together,” Neymar, who played with Messi at Barcelona before moving to PSG in 2017, wrote on Twitter.
Robinson Cano spent 17 seasons playing in the MLB in front of all kinds of baseball fans, but he said there is something special about his stint with the Mexican Baseball League’s Diablos Rojos. He is not alone. The league last week opened its 100th season, aiming to keep an impressive growth in attendance that began after the national team’s surprise run at the 2023 World Baseball Classic, and is already surpassing some first-division soccer clubs. After finishing third in the 2023 tournament, many casual fans, some of them soccer enthusiasts disappointed after Mexico were eliminated in the first round in the 2022
Noelvi Marte on Sunday had seven RBIs and hit his first career grand slam with a drive off infielder Jorge Mateo, while Austin Wynn had a career-high six RBIs as the Cincinnati Reds scored their most runs in 26 years in a 24-2 rout of the Baltimore Orioles. Marte finished with five hits, including his eighth-inning homer off Mateo. Wynn hit a three-run homer in the ninth off catcher Gary Sanchez. Cincinnati scored its most runs since a 24-12 win against the Colorado Rockies on May 19, 1999, and finished with 25 hits. Baltimore allowed its most runs since a 30-3 loss to
Arne Slot has denied that Darwin Nunez was dropped from Liverpool’s win against West Ham because of a training-ground row with a member of his coaching staff. The Liverpool head coach on Sunday last week said that Nunez was absent from the 2-1 victory at Anfield, having felt unwell during training the day before, although the striker sat behind the substitutes throughout the game. Speculation has been rife that the Uruguay international, whom Slot criticized for his work rate against Wolves and Aston Villa in February, was left out for disciplinary reasons. Asked on Friday to clarify the situation, Slot said: “He
CUNNINGHAM CONNECTS: In the Eastern Conference, the Pistons snapped their record 15-game playoff losing streak by beating the Knicks to level their series at 1-1 Kawhi Leonard on Monday scored 39 points on 15-of-19 shooting as the Los Angeles Clippers evened their first-round NBA Playoffs series against the Nuggets with a 105-102 win in Denver. “It feels like he didn’t miss a shot,” James Harden said. “His shot-making ability is elite.” Good thing, too, because his teammates were a combined 26 of 66 for a 39 percent clip. “I made shots tonight,” Leonard said. “I just keep playing, try to stay in the zone no matter if I’m making or missing shots.” The fifth-seeded Clippers needed every bit of his brilliance to snatch the homecourt advantage in the series
RSS