The fates have conspired to provide Club World Cup fans with a juicy storyline in the Round of 16 as Lionel Messi’s current side Inter Miami meet his former club Paris Saint-Germain on Sunday in Atlanta.
It’s a mouth-watering affair given the history between the player and club, as Messi will play against a former club of his for the first time in his career.
The Argentine legend spent two years in the French capital playing for PSG, and his exit in the summer of 2023 for Major League Soccer was not an amicable split.
Since that departure, Messi has spoken at length about how unhappy he was during his time in Paris, and how at the end of the stint he felt run out of town by the fans.
The Sporting News details what happened between Messi and PSG that caused the two to part ways earlier than anticipated, and why this game presents such a clash of fates.
MORE: Lionel Messi’s 2025 salary with Inter Miami revealed
Lionel Messi’s unhappy two years at PSG
Much has been revealed about how unhappy Lionel Messi was while at PSG, and the timeline of his two years in Paris explains those sentiments.
Messi signed for PSG in August of 2021 after leaving Barcelona, agreeing to a two-year contract with an option for a third. It was reportedly worth €30 million per year, with the option year being at the same value.
The club was eliminated from the Champions League in the Round of 16 both seasons. Despite the team’s many faults, the most vociferous supporter groups often blamed Messi along with the other superstars at the club — Kylian Mbappe and Neymar — for the failures.
“[After] I had to leave from Barcelona, I went through two years [at PSG] which I didn’t enjoy,” Messi said to Zane Lowe of Apple Music in February of 2025. “I wasn’t happy on a daily basis, with the training, the matches. I had a hard time adapting to all that.”
“People started to treat me differently, a part of the Paris supporters,” he also said, speaking to beIN Sports. “I think the vast majority still see me and treat me as they did at the beginning, but there was a fracture with a significant group of the Paris fans, which obviously wasn’t my intention, far from it. It happened just as it had happened before with Mbappe, with Neymar. I know that’s the way they behave.”
At one point towards the end of his second season, the fallout between player and club reached a boiling point as Messi was suspended two weeks for missing training after traveling to Saudi Arabia to fulfill sponsorship duties. While Messi would later apologize and miss only a week, fans saw this as an indication that Messi cared more about commercial commitments than performing for the club.
Eventually, after two rocky seasons, Messi left PSG after refusing to pick up the third-year option on his contract. Given he won the 2022 World Cup with Argentina during this period, beating Mbappe’s France on penalties after an incredible final, it arguably served its purpose.
Lionel Messi stats, goals for PSG
| Competition | Games | Goals | Assists | Minutes |
| 2021/22 Ligue 1 | 26 | 6 | 15 | 2,152 |
| 2021/22 UEFA Champions League | 7 | 5 | 1 | 630 |
| 2021/22 Coupe de France | 1 | 0 | 0 | 90 |
| 2022/23 Ligue 1 | 32 | 16 | 16 | 2,842 |
| 2022/23 UEFA Champions League | 7 | 4 | 4 | 615 |
| 2022/23 Coupe de France | 1 | 0 | 0 | 90 |
| 2022/23 Trophee des Champions | 1 | 1 | 0 | 90 |
| TOTAL | 75 | 32 | 35 | 6,509 |
Why did Lionel Messi leave Barcelona?
Some may argue that Lionel Messi’s time at PSG was always destined to fail, considering he never wanted to leave Barcelona in the first place.
Messi’s tear-filled goodbye from Camp Nou was never supposed to happen, and he was meant to stay at the famous La Liga outfit his entire career.
Yet years of financial mismanagement meant that in the summer of 2021, when his Barcelona contract expired, the club could not afford to re-sign Messi and register him with the league.
La Liga’s strict financial regulations not only meant Barcelona were unable to sign new players, but the club couldn’t even re-sign its current players. While some thought for a time that Messi could just play for free and work out the details later, that was not possible. La Liga’s provisions include a prevention of such a significant sidestep of the rules by legislating that salaries may only be cut by up to 50% from a player’s previous deal.
Thus, Barcelona simply could not afford to re-sign Messi and he was forced to leave.
“Everything was agreed and then at the last moment, because of the issue with La Liga, it could not be done,” Messi said upon his departure. “I did all I could to stay, that’s what I wanted but it could not be done. I accepted a 50% pay cut and after that nothing else was asked of me. I feel so sad to leave the club I love at a moment that I did not expect. I never lied, I was always up front.”
