When Lionel Messi announced his departure from Barcelona in 2021, it caught the football world by surprise as not many saw it coming, not even some of his teammates at the time could have predicted it.
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Sergio Aguero, who left Manchester City for Barcelona in the same summer expressed his desires to play alongside his countryman was one of the main reasons that made him sign for the Blaugrana but unfortunately, he never got a chance.
It was almost immediately confirmed that the now World Cup winner with Argentina will be headed to the French capital to join Paris Saint-German, where he would reunite with former Barcelona teammate, Neymar Junior.
The prospect of Lionel Messi, alongside both Neymar and Kylian Mbappe playing together on the same team was exciting because each as an individual is already one of the best in the world
PSG also added other top players in the other departments in order to strengthen the side and make them better challenger in the UEFA Champions League, a trophy which has eluded the club since its foundation.
The likes of Sergio Ramos, Gianluigi Donnarouma, Achraf Hakimi and Georginio Wijnaldum also joined the side, convincing football world that it might be PSG’s time to finally win the Champions League.
In 2020, just a year before their mega summer, PSG reached the competition’s final where they were beaten by Bayern Munich and followed it up by reaching the semi finals in 2021, where they were taken out by Premier League side, Manchester City.
The assemble of superstars was seen as the finishing touch to finally make the team worthy of being European champion. Unfortunately, things hasn’t gone as planned because with their mega summer, PSG have failed woefully in Europe.
Aside their infield failure, there were also infield dramas, with these players showing their frustration either at one another or towards the manager.
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There was a time when players fought over the right to take penalties and there were also scenarios where players refuse the complimentary handshake of the manager, because they were substituted for others to come on.
Off the pitch, there were multiple reports of division in the dressing room, brought about by the ego of these players.
Back to infield matters, in the season following their wild summer, PSG won the league title in France but disgracefully faltered in the UEFA’s number one club competition.
Having finished runner-up to Manchester City in the group stage, they were knocked out in the round of 16, despite a commanding performance in the first leg in the Parc des princes against eventual winner, Real Madrid.
A one goal lead thanks to a Kylian Mbappe’s late winner meant they kicked off the second leg in the Bernabeu with a lead, which was soon doubled by Frenchman on the night in Madrid. Unarguably, Mbappé is the club’s most consistent performer on the big stage.
Their moment of ruin came when Karim Benzema bagged a second hattrick in the space of 17 minutes to take the beyond the reach of Les Parisiens, who were left dumbfounded, with no response to the class of the record winners.
This season, nonetheless the drama that transpired on day six of their group games, which saw Benfica scored six goals in Israel against Maccabi Haifa to topple a group that has both PSG and Juventus, the reality is that it happened, and so because the French club, with the likes of Messi, Neymar and Mbappe failed to beat Roger Schmidt’s side over two legs.
They proceeded to the knockout round, again as runner-up and where they came up against Bayern Munich, whom they ousted in their last meeting but unfortunately, the Bavarian proved too good over two legs, inflicting a 3-0 aggregate defeat on PSG.
In between, the club changed managers just to get the best out of their world class squad but the result remained the same, as season after season, it was disappointment at the end of their European campaign.
Now the end appears to be near for the squad as a unit because this summer will see some of them depart, while some are still uncertain about what await them in the coming weeks.
The attacking trio of Messi, Neymar and Mbappé, which sounds like all-time great given their individual brilliance and reputation, will go down as the only one of the few elite attacking trio put together, not to win the UEFA Champions League together.
Not only did they not win the competition, they also neither topple their group nor go past the round of 16 in their two years together. Shambles.
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And of course they are not the only ones in these. Players like Sergio Ramos, who is also regarded as one of the all-time best center back is also in the groove just to mention but a few.
This fact will leave a massive blemish on their PSG reputation but little will players like Ramos, Messi and Neymar care because they’ve already won the competition elsewhere – it is Kylian Mbappé who will continue to hunt for his.
PSG will look for a fresh start during the summer, when they could look to move on Neymar if the right offer comes in, due to his recurring injury issues while Lionel Messi is set to depart as a free agent.
Mbappé is a man they’ll hope can commit his future but with the Frenchman’s sight still on a future move to Real Madrid, the remaining years on his current contract could be all that is left on his career at the club.
From a super team, normalcy will be restored once PSG move on the big names in the books and they will hope to continue their quest to win the Champions League with a different approach, because the assemble of stars that made achieving it inevitable has failed them miserably.
Author : Kehinde Hassan Afolabi
