This past weekend, the world witnessed soon-to-be 36-year-old Lionel Messi don a Paris Saint- Germain jersey for the final time in his career as a two-year stint at the Parc des Princes came to an underwhelming end. While the football icon claimed the 2022 FIFA World Cup during his time with Les Parisiens, the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner was unable to end the club's quest to lift the elusive UEFA Champions League, much to the disappointment of supporters. In this feature, Soccer Laduma international writer Kamogelo Motecwane takes a look at where the French giants go next as they continue their chase for European club football's ultimate prize after the Rosario native's departure.
Arrival Of The Messiah
Fresh from a Champions League semi-final elimination to Manchester City the season before, Paris Saint-Germain were hoping the 2021/22 campaign would coincide with a return to the tournament's final, especially given their incredible, blockbuster transfer window. Making their way to the French capital were massive names such as Achraf Hakimi, Georginio Wijnaldum, Gianluigi Donnarumma and Sergio Ramos, but no other arrival was as big as that of Lionel Messi. The Argentina international's controversial exit from Barcelona paved the way for him to join forces with several of his 2021 Copa America-winning teammates and, perhaps more pertinently, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. Given how close PSG were to finally getting their hands on Europe's biggest club title in recent years, it was presumed that signing Messi would give them the competitive advantage needed to finally become European champions. Helping the record French champions ascend to the summit of European football would have only added to Messi's allure as a football god and destroyed the notion that he was incapable of being successful outside of Spain. Expectations for the club were massive once the 35-yearold arrived in Paris, but while that was the case, the reality of his stint in France was that it was severely underwhelming. Messi leaves PSG after playing a hand in 67 goals in 75 appearances, but fans expected him to deliver more than neat finishes and smart assists. They wanted the Champions League.
From Rosario To Bondy
While Mauricio Pochettino inherited an abundance of riches prior to taking charge of the Red and Blues for his first full season, in hindsight they were the wrong ones. The whole world would have been clamouring to sign Messi once he couldn't re-sign with Barcelona, but looking back, PSG will likely feel that his success, or lack thereof, was on their part. Despite his grandiose arrival in France, the attacker only managed to win two league titles and will leave them still in search of their first coronation as kings of Europe. Having lost the South American and with Neymar rumoured to be headed for the exit door, Mbappe will likely be ordained as the man who can help the club achieve Champions League success. The 24-year-old is among the best players in the world and having already helped his country to World Cup success as a teenager, PSG will be looking to him as the man who can see them reach unprecedented heights. The striker will have the luxury of working alongside the only man that has thwarted Les Parisiens' domestic success in the past 11 years, Luis Campos. The Portuguese executive was sporting director at AS Monaco and Lille, with whom he won Ligue 1 titles in 2016/17 and 2020/21, respectively, before taking up the PSG challenge last year. The former scout has already had a season in the French capital and while he helped the team capture a record-setting 11th league title, many will likely still have questions about his pedigree to lead PSG to where they aspire to be. Rome, however, was not built in a day and Campos will need time to embed the necessary players he thinks will accentuate Mbappe's best attributes.
Learning From The Past
A team giving their best player the optimum conditions to thrive is the basic principle of building a successful sporting franchise and it is something PSG were perhaps guilty of not doing when Messi was around. In a lot of the big games Messi played while in Paris, the Argentine would often have to drop deep and into midfield positions in order to get on the ball and orchestrate attacks. While the two-time World Cup Golden Ball winner is an excellent playmaker, him dropping into midfield means there are less bodies up front making runs and causing havoc for opposition defences, making PSG more predictable to defend against. This is an issue the club will need to solve if they are going to get the best out of Mbappe. Midfielders such as Marco Verratti, Vitinha, Renato Sanches, Danilo and Fabian Ruiz perhaps do not possess the necessary creativity and/or quality to decide a major European tie when somebody like the superstar Frenchman is unable to use his rapid speed to get in-behind. It is this part of the club's squad that requires the most attention during the upcoming transfer window because their defence and attack, as constructed, can perform to a top level. The Bondy native has shown that he is capable of scoring at an immensely prolific rate throughout his club career, and it is likely that his goals will help PSG beat the likes of Benfica and Ajax Amsterdam, but they are going to need a plan that does not revolve around their star striker when they come up against stronger opposition. Treading carefully While it is completely natural to bounce some ideas of potential acquisitions off your star player, as can happen in sports around the world, it is incredibly important to not make the player seem bigger than the club. Mbappe is reportedly entering the final 12 months of his current deal at PSG, and it is likely that the club's chiefs will try everything in their power to entice the striker to stay longer, but they will need to tread the line of not pandering towards the forward very carefully. The biggest clubs in football never beg their marquee talents to stay and neither should the French giants if they are serious about being a force in Europe for decades to come. For as much as being a big club has a lot to do with actually winning football games, it is not all about that. Culture is a massive part of it too, and if a player is able to hold you to ransom, this speaks to how little the institution values itself in relation to the player. Les Parisiens were perhaps their own biggest enemy when it came to utilising Messi to his best potential, but with that chapter now closing, they will now double down on Mbappe as their talisman. His succession as the club's most important player will have challenges of its own, but hopefully the club's experience with the Argentina international will have helped them realise the healthiest habits to build on if they want to retain or attract superstar talent. They still look like a team that is far from achieving European success, but given the right transfer window, especially with the kind of money they have, that can change very quickly.
