Lionel Messi yesterday said he wants to “build something special” at Paris Saint-Germain.
The 34-year-old superstar on Tuesday signed a two-year deal with Ligue 1 side PSG with the option of an additional year.
Messi, who is to wear No. 30 in Paris, the number he had when he began his professional career at Barca, was unveiled by PSG at a news conference.
Photo: Reuters
“That’s why I am here. It’s an ambitious club,” Messi told a news conference. “You can see they’re ready to fight for everything.”
“My dream is to win another Champions League, and I think this is the ideal place to be to do that,” he said.
The Argentine said he did not know when he would make his debut for the club given that he has not played since winning the Copa America with his country last month.
“I’m coming back from holiday, I’ve been a month off the pitch,” he said. “I need a bit of a pre-season and get myself going. Hopefully debuting can be soon, but I can’t give you a date. It’s up to the coaches.”
Messi on Sunday wept as he told Barcelona fans he was leaving.
“I’ll always be thankful to Barca and their fans,” he said. “I went there as a boy, and we had some good and bad times.”
“The Barca fans knew I’d join a good club, fighting for the Champions League, because they know me, I like to win, I’m a winner and I want to carry on doing that,” he said.
“I don’t doubt that PSG’s objectives is to win and grow,” Messi said. “It would be nice on the one hand to face them [Barca] in the Champions League, especially with fans, but on the other strange to go back to my home in another team’s shirt, but that’s football.”
Messi was given a hero’s welcome by PSG fans when he arrived in the French capital on Tuesday.
French Football League president Vincent Labrune yesterday hailed the surprise arrival of the six-time Ballon d’Or winner as “extraordinary news for the exposure of Ligue 1 internationally.”
“The arrival of Lionel Messi will increase the attractiveness and visibility of our league on all continents,” Labrune said, praising PSG’s leadership.
Messi, who was a free agent, landed at Le Bourget airport in the north of Paris.
He was greeted by hundreds of PSG supporters.
Fans also gathered outside the club’s Parc des Princes home and near a plush hotel in the city where Messi along with wife, Antonella, and their three children are expected to be staying.
The completion of his move closes a whirlwind few days following the announcement on Thursday last week that he would leave Barcelona, the club he has represented for the entirety of his 17-year professional career.
Reports in Spain on Monday talked of a “final offer” by Barcelona to try to keep the player.
Instead, Messi will join a PSG attack already featuring Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
Qatar-backed PSG see Messi as the missing piece in their jigsaw as they chase the Champions League, the trophy they want more than anything else.
“Back together,” Neymar, who played with Messi at Barcelona before moving to PSG in 2017, wrote on Twitter.
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