Al-Khelaifi has offered his opinion on why Lionel Messi found life at Paris Saint-Germain tough after being given “everything” at Barcelona.
In a wide-ranging interview with RMC, Al-Khelaifi reflected on the challenges of the last few seasons at a club where European success has proved elusive, despite the vast array of talent assembled in the French capital.
In particular, Al-Khelaifi zeroed in on why Messi never hit the heights of his Barcelona days at the Parc des Princes.
Speaking to former PSG midfielder Jerome Rothen, Al-Khelaifi explained: “I’ll say one thing about Messi.
“He’s the best player in the world and the best player in history.
“It wasn’t easy for him to come here after a few years, you have to look at Barcelona.
“There, everything was for Messi: the players, the coaches and the management.
“He comes here and it’s not the same thing.
“We also have other players, we have Kylian and also Neymar.”
In his two seasons in France, Messi won the Ligue 1 title twice and scored a respectable number of goals.
But despite also winning a World Cup with Argentina while a PSG player, the feeling was that Messi never quite produced his glittering best in Paris.
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However, PSG crashed out of the Champions League at the round of 16 stage in both of Messi’s seasons at the club.
Also they look alarmingly unbalanced in defeats to Real Madrid and Bayern Munich.
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