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Lionel Messi not planning to present eighth Ballon d’Or at Parc des Princes as Inter Miami superstar admits his time at PSG ‘didn’t go as I’d hoped’
With things not going as planned on the field, Lionel Messi made a joke about the PSG supporters not wanting to see him parade his seventh Ballon d’Or at the team.
Messi acknowledged that while he and his family liked living in the French capital, his time at Paris Saint-Germain ultimately didn’t work out on the athletic front. Messi won a record-breaking seventh Ballon d’Or.
“I’m not sure the Parisians want that I present the Ballon d’Or to the Parc [des Princes],” he said at a press conference after the 2023 ceremony in Paris. “My time in Paris did not go as I hoped for different reasons. I lived for two years in Paris and I have very good friends there, I have enjoyed the city a lot.
My sons really enjoyed it and it cost them a lot to leave Paris because they didn’t want to move yet and they wanted to stay in their school and with their friends. It’s an incredible city that I had the chance to live in for a bit. From a sporting point of view, it didn’t go as I hoped but I keep in mind all the good things that I have lived, and there have also been many.”
Lionel Messi made the move to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the summer of 2021, being compelled to leave Barcelona due to the expiration of his contract. While he initially encountered challenges settling at Parc des Princes, he significantly improved in his second season with the club.
However, his relationship with PSG and their supporters deteriorated to the extent that fans were even booing the football superstar in the latter stages of the 2022–23 campaign.
Notably, Messi had expressed dissatisfaction with PSG’s lack of acknowledgment of his World Cup victory with Argentina in December. Subsequently, he decided against signing a new contract with PSG and chose to continue his career with Inter Miami in Major League Soccer (MLS).
Inter Miami’s 2023 season concluded on October 21 after falling short of qualifying for the MLS playoffs. Nevertheless, the club has arranged two friendly matches in China against local teams in November. Following these friendlies, Messi will have the opportunity to take some well-deserved time off before the commencement of the 2024 season.