PSG boss Mauricio Pochettino talks Lionel Messi.
Lionel Messi will be a free agent by July of 2020 if he does not sign a contract extension with the club. In his recent interview with Spanish media outlet, La Sexta, the Argentine admitted that he was still on the fence about staying at Barcelona. The player made it clear that his only focus was winning titles with the club at the moment and that he was not going to conduct talks or negotiations with any other clubs until the end of the season.
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With a very likely possibility of Messi leaving the Catalan side, the media has already started to link him with other big clubs. Manchester City and Paris Saint-Germain are the two biggest clubs in the world and both of them have been linked with the player. Realistically only a handful of clubs can actually afford the legend’s enormous wage and City and PSG are two of them.
The French giants got linked with the 33-year-old when Neymar publicly admitted that he would love to play with his former teammate in Paris next season. After the arrival of the Argentine coach, Mauricio Pochettino, the links got even stronger. However, in his first-ever conference in the Ligue 1, the former Tottenham Hotspur boss, declined to confirm or deny these rumors.
The new PSG manager was very cryptic but he said that he does not want to address transfer rumors right now as his coaching staff was settling in and he would rather give more time to adjust with the squad rather than pay attention to rumors. In the press conference, he said,
"“We leave the rumours aside. All great players are welcome at PSG, It’s one of the biggest clubs, if not the biggest in the world, so it’s normal that there are rumours. We have just arrived so we leave them aside.”Source Goal"
Although the manager did not give a direct answer to the question, it is possible that Messi could be going to Paris next season. The club is also trying to bring in Sergio Ramos, who will also be a free agent by the end of the season. They are really trying to give a fully star-studded team to the Argentine mastermind.
Pochettino went on to thank the owner and sporting director of the club for the opportunity. Should the club be able to sign Messi, Pochettino will have an absolutely insane squad in his hands. With the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Neymar already in the team, PSG will be the club to beat next season in the UEFA Champions League.
Will PSG be able to convince Messi to leave Barca?