MARCA announces it exclusively. According to Parisian sources, PSG have already told Lionel Messi their idea of offering him one more year. Despite what has been said in some circles, wrongly, the Argentine star ends his contract with the French entity in 2023. The option for one more year never existed. 2023… period, for now at least. Now, as we told you in MARCA today, the club’s wish, not yet formalized in an offer with numbers and letters, is to extend the link for another season, until 2024.
It is obvious then. Despite the fact that some ill-informed doomsayers have slipped the opposite, the French club is clear about it and the future commitment to Leo, in addition to Mbapp, is diaphanous. That said, what is Leo’s response and his entourage? The idea is that it is still early to respond to an intention, thethe club, which has not translated into a crumbled offer.
The idea of Messi is the one to wait for after the World Cup. Not for nothing, but because Qatar will be the key to knowing how the future is coming in every way, and checking Leo’s state of mind and form. That is, after the World Cup, already in 2023, many things will be decided.
The conviction of the club is, essentially, sports. They believe that Messi, after a first year of adaptation in which he had discreet numbers -for what he is used to-, can explode in a second year with many challenges: the World Cup, win the Champions League, etc. Leo’s first campaign in Paris was not easy. Not only being new to Paris had a negative influence, but bad luck with COVID. Crack acquired the virus at the beginning of the year, and was affected by the Delta variant, the most aggressive of all. Not only that. COVID caused a lung condition that delayed his comeback. The eagerness to play did not benefit him either. Everything goes back in time. In fact, his record of consecutive games at PSG is 10 games only (all tournaments): between January 23 and March 13.
Being sports the main thing, PSG also values the ‘jet’ of money that Leo attracts to the Paris coffers for image rights, marketing and operation of the stadium. As President Nasser al-Khelafi commented on MARCA, PSG had never generated so much revenue in a year: about 700 million. And Messi has a lot to do with this gain. Not only him, but much of it.
We already reflected it in MARK: lLeo’s arrival brought 10 new sponsorship contracts and, as the club’s commercial director, Marc Armstrong, also commented, the agreements were also higher than without Leo: “We have seen growth in areas where we can reach agreements of between 3-5 million and now they are between the 5 -8, so the impact is considerable.”
Indeed, ife calculates that income from this concept has grown by 13%, and brands like Dior and GOAT (fashion) entered; Gorillas (delivery men); Crypto.com (cryptocurrencies); Autohero (cars); Smart Good Things (natural drinks); Volt and Big Cola (soft drinks); Sports Water (water); and PlayBetR (betting). When it comes to cryptocurrencies, PSG’s coin value doubled when news broke that they were signing Leo, who cashes in some of his land in fan token. Thus, the club has exceeded 300 million revenues for this concept for the first time in its history this season.
We insist: lor sports is the first thing in the club’s desire to renew him, but it is that, although in Spain we already consider it natural, the madness for a Messi shirt in Paris has been exaggerated. According to club sources, 60% of the shirts sold last season were Leo’s, well above Mbapp’s. At certain times of the year, it was impossible to buy the regular jacket with Leo’s name and 30 on the back.
For this reason, and as explained above, PSG will continue betting on Leo for another year. There is Messi for a while.
Messi, training these days with PSG.
Leo started training in Paris on Tuesday, July 5, after enjoying with his family, mostly in Ibiza, a vacation in which he had a great time with friends like Luis Surez and Cesc Fbregas, his usual intimate companions and former co-workers at the Bara. Leo is already very focused on the beginning of the season that has just begun. So much so that the Argentine crack brought forward the start of training almost a week.
The beginning for the internationals was marked for last Monday 11 –Mbapp returns that day, for example-, but Leo started six days before. It wasn’t just him. Also Neymar, to say another, started the activity before his turn. It doesn’t mean anything special, but it does indicate that Leo’s desire to get ready is very appreciable.
It must be taken into account that andhe first official commitment of PSG will be next July 31. The duel is none other than the French Super Cup, which PSG will play against the champion of the Coupe de France, Nantes. It will be Leo’s first official game this season, and the former Barça player wants to be ready and ready for that day.
The Super Cup will be the preview of the first Ligue 1 game, scheduled for Saturday, August 6 (9:00 p.m.) against Clermont Foot away from home. Of course before the Super Cup, PSG has some friendlies planned to get ready looking forward to what is to come. The first friendly match will be tomorrow against Quevilly, a team from the French Second Division. It will be the match prior to the Japanese tour that PSG has scheduled for these lands, with matches against Kawasaki Frontale, Urawa Reds and Gamba Osaka, three Japanese football classics.
