Messi SLAMS PSG ahead of Inter Miami move

Stuart Telford

• 24 Jun 2023 13:56 BST
• 3 min read

Lionel Messi will leave Paris Saint-Germain for Inter Miami at the end of the June, and he has wasted little time in putting the boot in on his former employers and, more specifically, their fans.

Messi spent two seasons in the French capital after joining on a free transfer from Barcelona in the summer of 2021, and after a difficult first season at the Parc des Princes, hit his usual heights last term, with 16 goals and 16 assists in 32 Ligue 1 games either side of winning the World Cup with Argentina.

But while Barca fans dedicated the 10th minute of most of their games chanting Messi's name, letting him know how welcome his return to Camp Nou would be, sections of the PSG support booed the seven-time Ballon d'Or winner towards the end of the season.

READ: Barcelona's debt THE SAME as when Messi left the club

Paris fans have become used to winning since Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Qatar Sports Investments took charge of the club in 2011, but they only finished one point clear of Lens in Ligue 1 last season and yet another quarter-final exit in the Champions League was a source of frustration.

— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) May 3, 2023

Messi: 'Their way of doing things'

"At first it was great, I received a lot of encouragement as I've often said, but then people started to treat me differently, some of the Paris fans," Messi told RMC Sport. "The majority, on the other hand, treated me as well as they did at the start. There was a rift with a large section of the Paris crowd. Of course it wasn't my intention.

"But these are things that have already happened with [Kylian] Mbappe and Neymar too, it's their way of doing things…"

READ: Why Mbappe has NO intention of joining Real Madrid this summer

While Messi is leaving Paris, the other two thirds of the 'MNM' strikeforce looks set to remain. Neymar's new contract runs until 2025 with a player option of one more year and few teams in world football able to afford him, while Mbappe stands to earn €275m if he delays his move to Real Madrid until next summer.