French side Paris Saint Germain are supposedly considering not furthering the contract of Argentine attacker Lionel Messi.
Paris Saint Germain are assumed to be targeting to reduce expenses over issues of breaching Financial Fair Play regulations.
The French heavyweights were slammed with FFP punishments in 2022 and they were fined £8.6 million, while £56.3 million is pending based on the team’s future compliance with the guidelines.
PSG want to remove the salary of Lionel Messi off their wage bill
And as such, the team are focused on cutting their wage bill with Messi’s £740,000-a-week contract on the casualty line based on information from French media outlet, L’Equipe.
L’Equipe indicates that if Lionel Messi is released by Paris Saint Germain then teams in Saudi Arabia would table him staggering offers.
Former Sevilla defender Sergio Ramos is another player whose future is dangling from side to side as his contract just like Messi ends at the expiration of the current campaign.
Former France International Jerome Rothen recently asserted that Messi’s wage is too massive and removing him off the wage bill of the club would give room for PSG to spread their investment across the team.
Rothen also bashed the Argentine for falling to form a rapport with fans of the club.
He stated that the former Barcelona attacker “never thanks the fans, he lowers his head and goes to the dressing room”.
Discussing with RMC Sport, Jerome Rothen said:
“Messi’s renewal is a joke.
“Managing Messi, Neymar and Mbappe is complicated. On top of that, his salary is very high.
“I see PSG trapped in financial fair play because what they have to pay in wages has exploded.
“Now they will have the opportunity to recover a huge sum with Messi’s salary, this could allow them to hire and improve the squad.
He further added:
“For all that, it’s a bad idea to renew with Messi.”
Lionel Messi has also garnered attention from Major League Soccer side Inter Miami in addition to rumors of a possible return to Barcelona.
The Argentine attacker recently went past the 100 goal mark in international football as he scored a hat-trick against Curaçao to take his tally for Argentina to 102 goals.
Messi has netted 18 goals in 32 games for Paris Saint Germain in the 2022/23 league campaign thus far.
The Argentine has scored 29 goals in 66 appearances for the Paris Saint Germain side since he signed from Barcelona in 2021.
Messi has netted 712 goals in 876 games throughout his career and he is the second all-time goalscorer in football history behind his arch-rival, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Reports circulated a few months ago that the camp of Lionel Messi and Paris Saint-Germain were having positive headway towards a new deal but it seems those talks have gone south.
