Four days. We wondered, after his last match on Saturday against Clermont, how long Lionel Messi would take to say how disappointed he had been with his time at PSG. So it didn’t take long. On Wednesday evening, the Argentinian granted an interview to Catalan newspapers Sport And Mundo Deportivo. He explains there that he chose Inter Miami, and looks back on these last two seasons in the French club, which he leaves with “a mixed feeling”.
If the Parisian supporters showed on Saturday by whistling him that they will not keep very good memories of him, the reverse is also true. “The first year was very difficult, as I said before, for different reasons. The second year, the first six months, I felt very good, very comfortable at the club, in the city, with my family, he says. In the middle, there was the World Cup, which marked a turning point for all the teams. This has conditioned the season a lot. I was hoping to end otherwise, but hey. It has been a difficult two years for me in general. I was not happy. It affected my family life. But they are behind me now. »
“A little further than the sporty aspect”
It is true that there was a before and after World Cup for Messi, 12 goals and 14 assists in 19 games in the first part of the season, then 9 goals and 6 assists in 22 games afterwards. This Parisian experience was in any case part of the motivations that led him to join Miami. In Florida, the Argentinian hopes to lead a quieter life, where he can take more care of his children.
“I missed a lot of things in their life. In Barcelona I picked them up from school, here I did it a lot less, I shared fewer activities with them. This is also what motivated my decision, to reconnect with them, to enjoy everyday life, he says. I was lucky enough to achieve everything in football and now it goes a bit beyond the sporting aspect. David Beckham, owner of the Florida franchise, apparently found the words to convince him.