French press cooks up intriguing “Messi to PSG” theory

For all those who spend their spare moments at this time of the year making a case for a winter break, be careful what you wish for.

Plenty of other countries allow their leagues to hibernate, with the consequence that their broadcasters and journalists really have to struggle to fill their space.

So amongst all the “Goal of the season – so far”, and “Save of the season – until now” compilations, not to mention “Miss of the year” and updates from Italy on “Balo-Fanny” (the on-off relationship between Mario Balotelli and his companion Fanny Neguesha”, congratulations to “Le Parisien” for at least shooting for the moon.

“Messi a Paris, c’est possible!” is their superb attempt to distract from the fact that they have no football of their own to watch.

And indeed, it is possible that Leo Messi may move to Paris to join PSG, so in that sense their headline is not misleading. It is just not very likely.

They also go beyond mere speculation on such an event being possible, and list a number of reasons why it may be so.

First, Messi has well documented tax “matters” with the Spanish treasury. For all the player’s serenity about the case in the press, if the situation became too irritating the temptation to put a border between himself and the Spanish tax gatherers may intensify.

There has also been a little friction between the superstar and one of the Barcelona directors, Javier Faus, who commented that the club had no obligation to extend Messi’s contract beyond 2016.

Messi, rarely known to comment on anything, accused the director of “knowing nothing about football.”

Then there is the successful arrival of Brazilian superstar Neymar.

For years Barcelona have been accused of being over-reliant on Messi, so they finally did something about it by buying Neymar.

His arrival has coincided with the first long-term injury Messi has suffered at Barcelona, and with the field to himself Neymar has shone brightly enough to draw worldwide admiration.