There's a chill in the air fitting for the mood Paris Saint-Germain fans hold towards superstar forward Lionel Messi, whose time left at the club can now surely be measured in weeks rather than years.
"Messi does not love PSG and PSG does not love Messi. He should never wear the shirt again."
Those are the words of Florian, a 31-year-old supporter who works in hospitality. He is by no means the only voice of dissent and is indicative of the sentiment towards Messi and the club's Qatari owners.
The thousands of ultras and supporters who greeted Messi's arrival from Barcelona almost two years ago with such unbridled optimism are now calling on him – along with club chairman and CEO Nasser Al Khelaifi – to go.
The Argentina forward's contract at Parc des Princes expires in June, the same month Messi celebrates his 36th birthday, and neither party is of a mind to execute the option of extending that association a further 12 months.
Messi issued an apology Friday to PSG fans for fulfilling a long-standing commitment to the Saudi Tourism board, of which he is a brand ambassador, by travelling to the Kingdom with his family last week but what his club has described was an unauthorised trip.
The fluffy, PR-heavy video of Messi and his family enjoying their time in Riyadh while his teammates trained at home sticks in the craw of some.
The player believed that he – along with the rest of the squad – had been given two days off following a defeat to Lorient on Sunday, April 30 only for PSG coach Christophe Galtier to order his players in for training on the Monday. He was hit with a two week suspension and fined a fortnight's wages.
"The fact he went to Saudi Arabia, when PSG is fighting for [the] Ligue 1 [title], and after we lost 3-1 to Lorient, at the Parc [des Princes], is not acceptable," says Maxi Zuello, 25.
"It doesn't matter if he had told the Saudis he would go or that the coach told him he couldn't go – why is he going to Saudi Arabia during the most important moment of the season? If it is only a short trip, he could have fulfilled his commitment in the summer, after the season finishes. Even if he was planning to leave, he should have shown respect to PSG by arranging that trip after the season ended. The optics are bad."
Florian adds: "Messi's priority should be PSG and only PSG. Everything else is a distraction."
Habitual winners of Ligue 1, PSG's lead at the top is still five points after second-placed Marseille lost 2-1 at Lens on Saturday.
Zuello, a lifelong PSG fan and season-ticket holder, said he had refused to travel to support the team in Sunday's game against relegation-threatened Troyes in protest at the way the club is being run.
"QSI [Qatar Sports Investment] sees PSG as a glamour project. They sign the biggest names like Messi, Neymar, to show off to the world that they can attract the biggest names. But these players do not care about PSG and neither do the owners. They have forgotten it's about football.
"We don't need players who will sell the most shirts, we need players who will fight for the team, owners with a long-term vision to make PSG the best club in the world, fighting for the Champions League. Right now, we have neither."
With Messi told to stay away by his club bosses and seemingly persona non grata among the fans, it remains to be seen whether he will be in the French capital for the 2023 Laureus World Sports Awards on Monday, where he is nominated for the Best Sportsman and is favourite to win having led Argentina to World Cup glory late last year.
The Messi mess is indicative of a wider malaise at the French giants.
Just 24 hours after Messi was punished for his trip to Saudi Arabia, PSG fans descended on the club's Boulogne-Billancourt headquarters to vent their frustration. As well as Messi, Al Khelaifi, Neymar and PSG midfielder Marco Verratti were the subject of their ire. Neymar said on social media the PSG ultras had even gone to his house beforehand.
Fans are unhappy about an array of issues including the direction of the club, ticket prices and the state of their Parc des Princes home. Underlying all of that, though, is the team's failure on the biggest stage – the Champions League.
Messi's arrival was supposed to be the final piece of the puzzle. A four-time winner of European football's premier club competition at Barcelona would be paired in attack with Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. PSG could boast an attacking line up the equal of Real Madrid's famed 'BBC' troika of Gareth Bale, Karim Benzema and Cristiano Ronaldo as well as the famed front three of Messi's halcyon days at Barcelona alongside Neymar and Luis Suarez.
But elimination at the last-16 stage in each of Messi's two seasons punctured that dream. Fans were left questioning why a player widely regarded as the best of all time could drag every last ounce of effort out of his unheralded Argentina to win the World Cup but could not inspire the same out of an expensive array of superstars at PSG.
"We all saw Messi at the World Cup – he was a genius," says Pierre Grau, wearing a replica of Mbappe's No 7 PSG shirt. "Him and Mbappe were the best players in Qatar, both PSG players. The way they played in the final gave us all hope that, when they came back, this would be our year to win the Champions League.
"But Messi's performances since the World Cup have not been good. It's not just him, there are others, too. [But] You sense he would rather be back at Barcelona or playing for even more money in Saudi Arabia. If this is his motivation, he can go."
Barcelona are said to have tabled an offer worth a fraction of what Messi was on during his first stint at the club while Al Hilal, who on Saturday lost out on retaining their Asian Champions League crown, have, according to reports, bid a staggering €400 million a year to lure Messi to Saudi.
While it would be folly to put PSG's failures in Europe down to just Messi, what is clear is that fans believe his recent trip to Saudi Arabia has damaged his relationship with the club beyond repair.
