Messi transfer latest: Legend could pick next PSG boss… then leave!

Stuart Telford

• Updated: 18 Apr 2023 13:34 BST
• 3 min read

Lionel Messi is set to have a big say in Paris Saint-Germain's next manager, even as he closes on a return to Barcelona.

Messi is out of contract at the Parc des Princes this summer and Barca are desperate to bring him back to his spiritual home having lost him on a free to PSG in the summer of 2021.

The player himself is yet to comment on his future, but Barcelona president Joan Laporta recently replied with a simple "yeah" when asked if Messi was coming back to Camp Nou at the end of the season.

READ: Lionel Messi's Barcelona return CONFIRMED by Laporta with one-word answer

Reports from France suggest that Christophe Galtier will be replaced by Thiago Motta in the summer, meanwhile, and Messi's relationship with his former Blaugrana teammate would be key to that particular appointment.

Motta's case

"PSG's results have been poor in 2023 and Christophe Galtier could be dismissed in the off season," report le 10 Sport. "… and his potential successor could be Thiago Motta, who ticks several boxes.

"Motta would be respected in the PSG dressing room. Even if he didn't share a pitch with Kylian Mbappe, he was a teammate of Messi at Barcelona and played with Marquinhos and Marco Verratti in Paris."

READ: Lionel Messi at PSG: Goals, assists, results & fixtures in 2022-23

Although Messi would no doubt enjoy playing under Motta - who has been with Genoa, Spezia and latterly Bologna since managing PSG's under-19s in 2018/19 - it might be too little, too late, on Paris' part to keep Messi in the French capital.

Sport's Jordi Gil reports that Barcelona's players are still in touch with Messi and are receiving regular updates from the club about his potential return.

"Xavi would be the first to welcome him," he writes. "Robert Lewandowski has also spoken publicly in favour of his return.

"Private conversations are the same as public ones. The players are told that seeing Messi in a Barca jersey again is not a pipe dream."