Lionel Messi will be presented as a Paris Saint-Germain player on Wednesday after arriving in France to sign a two-year contract on Tuesday. The deal includes an option to extend by a year and gives the forward a net salary of about €35m (£29.6m) with bonuses factored in.
Messi flew from Barcelona and was greeted by a PSG tweet that confirmed he was joining and welcomed a “new diamond in Paris”. The 34-year-old waved to crowds of celebrating fans from a window at Le Bourget airport, north of the capital. He had boarded the plane in one T-shirt and emerged at the window in another, with the club’s trademark “Ici c’est Paris” on the front.
Messi, his lawyers, and his father, Jorge, had been in talks with PSG since Thursday when the player’s plan to stay at Barcelona collapsed because of the club’s financial situation. Messi had agreed on a five-year contract with Barcelona worth about €20m a season.
Jorge Messi had confirmed to the Spanish television station La Sexta at Barcelona airport that his son would sign for PSG on Tuesday and was asked whose fault it was that his son was leaving the Camp Nou. “Ask at the club,” he replied. A press conference and presentation is planned for 11 am Paris time on Wednesday.
The move enables Messi to link up again with Neymar, a former Barcelona teammate who has been working to convince the Argentinian to join him in Paris and gives PSG attacking options of Messi, Neymar, Kylian Mbappé, and Ángel Di María.
