Following his decision to accompany Cesc Fabregas to a Coldplay concert in Barcelona rather than the Ligue 1 honours ceremony on Sunday, Lionel Messi has further ignited rumours regarding his future. Messi scored in Saturday night’s 1-1 draw between Paris Saint-Germain and Strasbourg to help his team win the Ligue 1 title.
The Argentinean overcame Cristiano Ronaldo’s previous record of 495 goals after scoring his 496th goal in the top five leagues in Europe. Yet, Lionel Messi risked further wrath of PSG after his suspension for Saudi trip by choosing to miss the Parisian club’s title celebrations in favour of the Coldplay concert in Barcelona.
Lionel Messi welcomed to ‘Messi Messi’ chants in Barcelona amid return rumours
Ahead of their season-ending match against Clermont on the weekend, the draw helped PSG win their seventh French top-flight championship in the previous 11 seasons. The PSG players were seen cheering and spraying champagne in the dressing room during the Strasbourg match, but perhaps most tellingly, Lionel Messi stayed sat and did not participate.
At the end of June, Messi’s PSG contract will expire, and it is anticipated that he would depart the team after two seasons. He was placed on administrative leave by PSG in April for travelling to Saudi Arabia without permission, and he now seems cut off from the rest of the team.
Video from the weekend, which showed Lionel Messi in the audience on Sunday at the Montjuic Stadium seeing Coldplay with his wife Antonela Roccuzzo and his former Barcelona teammate Fabregas, served to further emphasise that sentiment. When they saw him at the performance, the audience, most of which were Barca fans cheered for their hero since rumours are rife that he would soon be returning to the club he left in the summer of 2021.
Kylian Mbappe was crowned the Ligue 1 player of the season at the UNFP awards event in Paris, while Messi was in Barcelona. Messi was not there to accept the award when it was presented at the formal Ligue 1 event that was put on by the players’ union.
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When Messi’s contract with PSG expires on June 30, there are a number of clubs fighting for his services, including Barcelona, Inter Miami of the MLS, and Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia. Miami, who are owned in part by David Beckham, have been wooing him to join for years, but Al-Hilal are offering to give him an astounding £369 million every year.
According to L’Equipe, Messi’s wife Antonela is not in favour of the transfer to Saudi Arabia since she does not want to live there with the couple’s three young boys. Barcelona are the favourites despite their financial difficulties, and president Joan Laporta recently spoke with Messi’s father Jorge and is making a lot of effort to lure him back to Spain.