There is hardly any team or manager in the world who wouldn’t want a player of the class and caliber of Lionel Messi in their side, after all, he is arguably the greatest ever player to play the game but former French Forward, James Rothen is of the opinion that PSG shouldn’t extend Messi’s contract and let him leave.
This statement comes amid massive speculation around Lionel Messi’s PSG contract delay as there have been rumors that the Argentine doesn’t want to extend his contract with the French champions and would like to move on to a different challenge.
Talking on the ‘Rothen Ignites’ show on RMC Sports the former PSG and French forward said that it is a very difficult job for Christophe Galtier to manage three superstar personalities of Kylian Mbappe, Neymar Jr., and Lionel Messi. Rothen also talked about PSG transfer policies and that the French Champions’ huge wage bill might end up in their transfer business being blocked by financial fair play rules.
🇦🇷| Jérôme Rothen says that PSG has no interest in extending Lionel Messi’s contract. #PSG [@RMCsport] pic.twitter.com/4oI1bmUzt6
— Football Talk (@FootballTalkHQ) February 7, 2023
He said: “Managing the three is complicated. After that, there is the wage bill. And we saw that PSG is blocked with the financial fair play. Because the wage bill has exploded.”
Rothen further emphasized his point by saying that if PSG let Messi go, it can decrease their wage bill substantially which will leave room around for the club to sign new players and fill the squad. He laid out all of these points to make a case for PSG to not extend Messi’s contract.
He said: “There, you have the opportunity to recover a large amount of money because the salary of Messi is substantial. It can allow you to recruit and improve your squad. For all that, it’s a very bad idea to extend Leo Messi.”
Even though Messi has aged and is heading toward the eclipse of his career, he has been delivering brilliant performances and helped Argentina win the World Cup. Messi has also been among the top goal scorers of the Uber Eats Ligue 1 with 10 goals and is number 1 on the assists charts with 10 assists.
Lionel Messi’s PSG contract
Lionel Messi’s contract with FC Barcelona expired in the summer of 2021 and the Catalan club couldn’t extend the contract of the 7-time Ballon d’Or winner because of their massive debt situation and financial regulations of La Liga, thus Messi bid farewell to Camp Nou and moved to PSG.
Lionel Messi joins PSG… HERE WE GO! Total agreement completed on a two-years contract. Option to extend until June 2024. Salary around €35m net per season add ons included. 🇦🇷🇫🇷 #Messi
Messi has definitely accepted PSG contract proposal and will be in Paris in the next hours. pic.twitter.com/DiM5jNzxTA
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 10, 2021
Lionel Messi signed a two-year contract with the French Champions till 2023 with an option to extend for one more year. Messi was given a huge signing bonus of nearly $30 million by the Qatar-owned club and his wages were reported to climb up to around $75 million per year including the image rights and jersey sales.
Messi’s contract situation with PSG seems to be getting complicated day by day with pundits now asking for the club to not extend his contract. It will be very interesting to see what the player and the club decide and where will Messi play next season.
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