'Dead weight' - Messi slaughtered after dismal PSG performance

Robin Bairner

• 9 Feb 2023 12:01 GMT
• 3 min read

Lionel Messi’s campaign to earn a new contract at Paris Saint-Germain suffered a blow to its credibility on Wednesday as PSG were dumped out of the Coupe de France by Marseille.

OM claimed a 2-1 victory at Stade Velodrome thanks to goals from Alexis Sanchez and Ruslan Malinovsky, which were more than enough to trump Sergio Ramos’ reply.

Without Kylian Mbappe, who will miss at least the next week with injury, PSG looked to Messi and Neymar to carry them offensively, but as head coach Christophe Galtier admitted, it didn’t work.

MORE: Messi's extension is 'bullsh*t'

“We created very few favourable situations,” he admitted after the match.

For Messi, defeat means that the Coupe de France remains the only competition that he has played that he has not won. That may be anecdotal, but what is not are doubts over his future at PSG.

MORE: How Mbappe is pushing Messi away from PSG

Although the club continues to crave the Argentine for at least one more season, there are calls of dissent elsewhere.

Former PSG player Jerome Rothen has led these, claiming that an expensive contract extension for Messi is “bullsh*t” given that the club is set to slash its wage bill in the summer in the face of Financial Fair Play (FFP) restrictions.

Messi's future in doubt

Although Messi has enjoyed a strong performance with PSG this season – 15 goals and 14 assists in 25 games – there remain questions over his value for money.

These are altogether more significant after Wednesday’s loss in what was not an insignificant game for PSG.

Foot Mercato, for instance, described the player as a “dead weight” in what was an “insipid” performance. It also argued that he may well have been taken off after an hour if it wasn’t Messi – although PSG’s lack of depth on the bench, caused in part by the collapse of the Hakim Ziyech deal on Deadline Day, means that is not so certain.

L’Equipe, meanwhile, criticised the volume of balls he lost and his poor decision making. It did, however, give him 4/10 thanks to the flashes of brilliance he showed.

Will these flashes be enough to justify PSG offering him a bumper new contract? Or will this negative media attention drive Messi to look elsewhere? The answer will follow in the coming months.