Barcelona's first European Cup winning squad has been dubbed the 'Dream Team' and now no club deserves this title more than Paris Saint-Germain, which has added Lionel Messi to its star-studded squad.
Messi, who held an emotional press conference to bid farewell to Barcelona, joined Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday, forming a triple attack line with Neymar, his friend and former partner in the Catalan club attack and young French star Kylian Mbappe.
This trio may compete with the offensive partnership that Messi formed in Barcelona with Neymar and Luis Suarez 3 seasons (MSN), and they scored 364 goals among them and led Barca to the Spanish League, King's Cup and Champions League treble in 2015.
But that success marked the beginning of a period of slow decline for Barcelona, something that should serve as a warning to PSG of the troubles of building a squad full of talent but lacking in physical effort and ideas.
Ultimately, building a team centered around a talented attacking trio came at the expense of Barcelona's overall balance, and Barcelona quickly found itself unable to compete with the most prominent clubs in the Champions League.
Barcelona were eliminated from the Champions League by Atletico Madrid in the following season, and then lost 4-0 and 3-0 against Paris Saint-Germain and Juventus, respectively, in the following season.
Neymar left for Paris Saint-Germain in 2017 in a world record deal worth 222 million euros, but Barcelona squandered their windfall on more expensive individuals such as Ousmane Dembele, Philippe Coutinho and Antoine Griezmann, raising the club's wage bill ever higher.
The most beautiful pictures of Messi's arrival in Paris! #PSGxMESSI ❤💙
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- Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_arab) August 10, 2021
La Liga titles continued to flow but the team soon ceased to appear at the forefront of the game.
As the club became more dependent on Messi, other top clubs on the continent continued to develop, surpassing Barcelona both tactically and physically.
There were clear warning signs, such as the 3-0 defeat against Roma in the 2018 quarter-final second leg, and then the more painful 4-0 loss to Liverpool the following season, so the Blaugrana fell 4-3 in the total score in the semi-finals.
Barcelona reached rock bottom with a humiliating 8-2 defeat against Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals of the 2019-20 season.
While Paris Saint-Germain won a landslide victory at the "Camp Nou" last season, 4-1 in the final price of the last edition, becoming the fastest time that Barcelona was eliminated from the tournament in 14 years.
But Barcelona's most painful loss was the financial damage that accompanied the Corona virus pandemic and led to the accumulation of debts worth 1.2 billion euros, making it unable to keep Messi.
✍️❤️💙 #PSGxMESSI
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- Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_arab) August 10, 2021
Financial warning signs may also be present against Paris Saint-Germain, which this summer included Sergio Ramos, Georginio Wijnaldum and Gianluigi Donnarumma, all of them in free deals but with huge salaries, in addition to spending 60 million euros on the inclusion of Ashraf Hakimi.
talented players
There are questions to be answered as to whether a squad full of so many talented players, most of whom are over 30 years old, can maintain team spirit on the pitch.
Coach Mauricio Pochettino has to show he can control a star-studded squad, something his predecessors, Unai Emery and Thomas Tuchel, struggled to do.
Although he is calmer than the likes of Ramos and Neymar, Messi has not always proven to be easy to deal with.
🔛📽️ - Day 1 ⃣
❤️💙 #PSGxMESSI
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- Paris Saint-Germain (@PSG_arab) August 10, 2021
Former Barcelona coach Gerardo Martino said he knew Messi "could have sent him off at any moment", while Quique Setien, who oversaw the painful defeat to Bayern Munich, said: "He is very conservative, but he makes you see the things he wants."
Pochettino has the advantage of belonging to Rosario, the same region that Messi hails from in Argentina, and they jointly support the Newell's Old Boys club.
But he will have to tread carefully between showing the respect that player status requires without allowing him to become bigger than the club.