Paris (AFP)

Messi, on M-day?

After saying goodbye to FC Barcelona on Sunday, superstar Lionel Messi can get closer to Paris SG on Monday, on the verge of making a sensational coup.

Since the brutal announcement of the departure of the Argentinian from his long-standing club, Thursday, the football planet has been watching the slightest movement of the 34-year-old player.

Today, the name of its future destination is no longer in doubt: PSG is on pole to welcome it.

But the "Pulga" (the "Chip" in Spanish, his nickname) does things at his own pace, as a good metronome of the game he is: he preferred to dedicate what could be his last weekend as a free player to the Barça.

Sunday, in the bowels of Camp Nou where he wrote his legend, Messi, in tears when he arrived at the desk, proclaimed his love for the club where he arrived at the age of 13.

“I never imagined my farewell because the truth is I wasn't thinking about it,” he said, revealing that he was prepared to cut his pay in half so that he could stay.

Messi: farewell to Barcelona Enric BONET-TORRA AFP

But Barça has given up on extending his huge contract, which expired last June, which placed too high a risk on his bloodless finances.

The opportunity was too good for PSG, whose wealthy Qatari owner (QSI) is in perpetual quest for superstars to develop his brand.

- "Possibility" -

The day after the announcement of Messi's departure, which took place on Thursday, Paris spoke with the Argentinian clan who confirmed that it was "a possibility" for him to sign for PSG.

The club offers him a net annual salary of around 40 million euros, according to the French press, which places him at the level of Neymar (36 million EUR).

The financial strength of QSI and the relaxation of UEFA's financial fair play rules made possible an operation that no one imagined at the start of the summer.

The coach of Paris SG, Mauricio Pochettino (L), the sporting director of the club Leonardo (C) and its president Nasser Al-Khelaïfi after the victory of Paris SG in the final of the Coupe de France against Monaco, May 19, 2021 FRANCK FIFE AFP

Paris Saint-Germain, which won in Troyes on Saturday in Ligue 1 (2-1), paved the way for this "big bang" capable of taking it to another dimension, both sporting and economic.

With the six-time winner of the Golden Ball, alongside Neymar and Kylian Mbappé, he becomes the big favorite of the Champions League, the ultimate dream of QSI who failed in the final in 2020, then in the semi-final last May .

The players in the French Championship, interviewed during the weekend, were all delighted with the possible arrival of the superstar, good news in a situation weighed down by the pandemic and the crisis in TV rights.

Lionel Messi and Neymar under the Barcelona jersey in La Liga on the lawn of Atletico de Madrid on February 26, 2017 GERARD JULIEN AFP / Archives

"It would be great for Ligue 1, he's the best player in the world," said OM Argentinian coach Jorge Sampaoli on Sunday evening.

"French football has won a lot, grown a lot in recent seasons. It will be an additional motivation for us to play against him".

"It's extraordinary for Ligue 1. But for a football purist like me, Messi must end his career in Barcelona ... but that was before", had launched a few hours earlier the coach of Metz Frédéric Antonetti .

Headlines of the French press have already worked on the Parisian calendar to find the match of the first Messi: before (in Reims on August 29) or after (against Clermont on September 12) the international truce of September?

One more question around a file whose conclusion is long overdue.

But Messi is well worth a mass.

© 2021 AFP