One phone call changed the face of European football. It came when Lionel Messi rang PSG
coach and fellow Argentinian Mauricio Pochettino, making it clear that he wanted to join PSG.
Pochettino passed the message up to the boardroom and soon after,
conversations began between Nasser Al-Khelaifi and the player’s entourage.
Jorge Messi had spoken to Al-Khelaifi before and PSG were quickly convinced he would join.
The motivation for Messi was partially financial but he also knows Pochettino, while his former
Barcelona team-mate Neymar has been publicly and privately encouraging him to join PSG
since last year. Fellow Argentines Angel Di Maria and Leandro Paredes are also close to Messi.
As the deal began to accelerate on Thursday evening, Al-Khelaifi
received the advice of the club’s head of sponsorships, Marc Armstrong,
who was set the challenge of working out the commercial potential of signing Messi.
Armstrong is a former vice-president of marketing at the NBA and commercial director at the NFL.
The precise calculations remain private but the club believes an uplift in sponsorship deals,
ticketing, tours and the profile of the French league will follow. Indeed,
sources close to PSG argue their investment in Messi “will pay for itself” in the years to come.
Others, who view the club more cynically, will question how the signing of Messi can fit within
the framework of UEFA’s financial fair play regulations — PSG already have Neymar earning
€31 million net per year and remain locked in contract negotiations with Kylian Mbappe.
PSG have insisted throughout the past few days that Messi’s arrival
will not impact Mbappe’s future, yet rarely has
there been a situation where two clubs are so convinced a player will be theirs.
Real Madrid’s sales this summer, particularly defender Raphael Varane’s impending move to
Manchester United, are predicated around creating funds to sign Mbappe, whether
that is this summer or, more likely, on a free transfer in a year’s time. Yet PSG continue to
insist the France striker will re-sign and believe Messi’s arrival will help convince him to stay.
As for PSG’s own finances, sources insist the club’s growing commercial profile
will cover the costs and that there is space on
their wage bill for the Messi deal to fall within the remit of FFP.
Following Juventus’ 2018 signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, the Italian club upped ticket prices,
went back to core sponsors to re-negotiate and uplift existing deals, and accelerated
social-media growth to give more exposure to commercial clients. These steps are now
expected at PSG, who were made aware internally of marketing data that suggested that up to
10 per cent of tourists who visit Barcelona cite football and Messi as their prime motivation.
The French government is also said to have privately expressed their pleasure with the
possibility of Messi moving to Paris. It does feel optimistic to argue that a club who already have
Mbappe and Neymar in their team could secure dramatic additional growth by signing Messi,
yet this is the initial feedback PSG have heard from commercial partners and in-house analysts.
Al-Khelaifi held extensive talks with Jorge Messi throughout Friday and,
by that afternoon, the thrust of an agreement was in place.
At Barcelona’s training ground, there was shock as the news filtered out.
And hostility. On Friday, Antoine Griezmann was left distressed while driving into the
complex as he was heckled by supporters who suggested his refusal to leave the club
and thus reduce the wage bill contributed to Messi’s departure.
Back at PSG, Messi will receive a post-tax €25 million sign-on fee,
in addition to €25 million per year in salary for the time he spends at the club.
The contract is a two-year agreement, but includes the option of an additional third.
His legal representatives travelled to Paris on Saturday to finalise the terms
and complete the last and the most spectacular of their summer coups.
But there is also a broader narrative to this latest signing.
PSG are owned by Qatari investors — the club’s ultimate owner, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, is
also the Emir and head of state in Qatar. The next 18 months are monumental for the
image that country wishes to present to the world ahead of and during the 2022 World Cup.
For a Qatar-owned club to possess Mbappe, Messi and Neymar in the run-up to the tournament yields
significant commercial potential and ensures that major voices in the sport are lining up
behind the project. Sources familiar with Messi’s deal at PSG said the contract does not contain a
specific clause obliging him to appear at the World Cup next year, should Argentina qualify,
but it is expected that such an agreement will be reached once he is on board.
He will be 35 by then so, almost certainly,
it will be his final World Cup as a player — a huge boon for the Qatar tournament.
Those who follow Qatari diplomacy closely — or perhaps Newcastle United — will also know
that tensions remain with their Saudi Arabian neighbours. As a result, the Qataris will take
pleasure in signing up Messi, particularly after reports surfaced earlier this year claiming he had
been approached by the Saudi tourist board to become one of the faces of their brand.
For Al-Khelaifi personally, it caps an extraordinary calendar year in which he has
emerged as the most authoritative voice among European football executives. When the Super
League idea emerged in April, PSG, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund declined to participate.
Following the initial announcement, the Super League 12 — dubbed the Dirty Dozen — worked
around the clock on Al-Khelaifi. They warned his club would be left behind. They cautioned that
the French league, beset by economic hardship, would fade into irrelevance. Yet he resisted.
Nobody at PSG is brazen enough to suggest there was a Machiavellian plot to spike the
Super League and cherry-pick Messi, yet that is how it has worked out.
PSG refused to bail out Madrid, Barcelona,
Liverpool and the Milan clubs — and then signed crucial players from all five sides,
including arguably the greatest player in the sport’s history.