French Paris Saint-Germain and Argentina forward Lionel Messi has commented on his departure from the Red and Blue's camp after the Ligue 1 33rd round match against Lorient (1-3).
On May 1, Messi, 35, who is the brand ambassador of the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Tourism, left for the capital Riyadh. According to L'Equipe newspaper reports, the striker may sign a contract with Al-Hilal, which is offering the 2022 World Cup champion a salary of 220 million euros per year. Since Messi did not inform the Parisian management of his decision, PSG suspended the forward from training and games in the main team for two weeks.
Also, as reported by the media, the Parisians do not intend to extend Messi's contract, which expires in June 2023.
I sincerely thought we would have a free day after the match [against Lorient], as had happened in previous weeks. I’d already had this trip planned, which I’d canceled previously, and this one I couldn’t cancel.
Lionel Messi on his social media
Messi played 28 games in the current Ligue 1 season, in which he scored 15 goals and gave the same number of assists.