The PSG Owner has criticized Lionel Messi for lacking “respect” for the French club following his departure in June 2023.
THE ARGENTINA captain said in September that he resents that PSG did not honour him after his World Cup heroics. “He’s not a bad guy but I don’t like it,” Al-Khelaifi told RMC Sport. “I’ll say, not just for him but for everyone, we talk when we’re there, not when we’re gone. That’s not our style… I have great respect for him [Messi] but if someone wants to speak badly about Paris Saint-Germain afterwards, that’s not good. That’s not respect.”
Messi scored twice in the final in Qatar and also converted a penalty in the shootout as Argentina won 4-2 on penalties against France at the 2022 World Cup. “If anyone talks about the fact that we didn’t celebrate him enough after he won the World Cup, we’re in France and he won against [France and PSG star] Kylian [Mbappé],” Al-Khelaifi said. “We are a French club. I don’t want the whole stadium to be against him either.”
Al-Khelaifi admitted that Messi found it difficult to adapt to Paris after leaving Barcelona in the summer of 2021. “I’m going to say one thing about Messi, the best player in the world and the best player in history,” Al-Khelaifi said. “It was not easy for him to come here… After Barcelona. There [in Barcelona], everything was for Messi: the players, the coaches, and the management. He comes here and it’s not the same thing, we also have other players, we have Kylian and also Neymar.”
Al-Khelaifi, meanwhile, said that Gabriel Moscardo’s transfer to PSG is on stand-by. Sources told ESPN in December that PSG had agreed a €20 million ($21.9m) deal with Corinthians to sign the teenage midfielder for a fee of around €20m. Moscardo, 18, recently announced that he would undergo surgery on his left foot that would see him sidelined for three months.
”He’s a fantastic player,” Al-Khelaïfi said of Moscardo. “We really believe in him and his potential. He is injured and needs an operation, so we have to take care of that too. We are in a slightly uncomfortable situation with him because we cannot run the risk of taking an injured player. We have to wait. This is the situation currently.”
Daily Times
