According to reports, Lionel Messi will leave PSG this summer

According to reports, Lionel Messi will leave PSG this summer. Messi joined the Qatari-backed giants from FC Barcelona in the summer of 2021 after the Catalans failed to offer him a new contract that would simultaneously allow them to navigate a strict La Liga salary cap.

Just past midnight in Europe, L’Equipe released a snippet of a report it will publish in full on Tuesday morning through Twitter.

Messi “will not continue his adventure at PSG next season”, according to the French sports publication, though there remains a way of the two parties maintaining their relationship in 2023/2024 if the Argentine accepts a “significant reduction in his salary”.

Last week, the same publication reported that Messi currently takes home €3.375 million ($3.7 million) a month, which puts him third on the list of French football’s biggest earners behind teammates Neymar in second and the World’s Highest-Paid Soccer Player in 2022 according to Forbes in first-place Kylian Mbappe.

If it is accurate, L’Equipe’s report debunks that made by Catalan daily newspaper Mundo Deportivo on Friday alleging that PSG were willing to offer Messi “more money” and “more years” beyond the additional, optional season his original two-term deal came with.

After becoming world champion with Argentina back in December, PSG were said to have been growing in confidence about their chances of signing Messi to a new contract in the French capital.

However, the 35-year-old’s future has since become clouded in uncertainty, and he was booed by his own fans during the weekend’s Ligue 1 defeat to Lyon at the Parc des Princes.

PSG president Nasser Al-Khelaifi has vowed to do everything in his power to keep Messi at the club, but according to L’Equipe, a parting of the ways could be on the cards this summer.

Al-Khelaifi and the attacker’s father Jorge Messi reportedly held positive talks about a one-year extension during the World Cup break, but those discussions have not materialised into anything more.

Talks are still said to be ongoing, but hopes of the two parties coming to an agreement are now dwindling, and Messi will most likely wave his goodbyes to the French champions in a few months’ time.

The Argentine left Barcelona in 2021 amid the Blaugrana’s financial crisis – which still inhibits the Catalan club in the transfer market – but he continues to be linked with a sensational move back regardless.