Lionel Messi broke his silence. The Argentine player, in the midst of a scandal at PSG over an ‘express trip’ to the Middle East, which led him to be sanctioned, published a video on his social networks referring to what happened for the first time.

“I apologize”he said after the French newspaper ‘L’Équipe’ assured that the ’10’, recent world champion, will not renew with the Parisian team.

Lionel Messi apologizes

Lionel Messi celebrates with PSG.

“I thought we were going to have a day off after the game, as it had been during the previous weeks. I had this trip to Arabia planned, which I had already canceled before… but this time I couldn’t”Messi said in the clip, in which he is affected, about the trip that ended up generating a schism in the team.

“I apologize to my teammates and club”, added.

“I am waiting for what the club wants to do with me”, he closed.

(Also: Messi had an unexpected trip to Arabia and unleashes a wave of rumors: what was it for?).

Messi’s controversial trip to Saudi Arabia

Lionel Messi, in a PSG match.

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) has sanctioned Leo Messi to two weeks without a job and salary for having traveled to Saudi Arabia on Monday without permission from the clubone day after Sunday’s league defeat against Lorient (1-3).

With a monthly salary estimated at around 3.37 million euros, the sanction will deprive him of around 1.70 million euros. This sanction coincides with the serious sporting crisis that PSG is going through, which has plummeted since the end of the World Cup in Qatar, precisely the one that enthroned Messi.

The capital team was eliminated in the round of 16 of the Champions League against Bayern Munich and has lost three of its last four home games, limiting its advantage in the local championship over the second (Olympique de Marseille) to 5 points.

The 35-year-old captain of the Argentine team also ends his contract with the Parisians next June. Although the Messi clan and the president of PSG, Nasser Al-Khelaifi, had been in contact since the end of 2022 to renew the player’s contract, L’Equipe assures today that the extension is ruled out.

The discontent in the upper echelons of the club and in the Parisian fans over Messi’s attitude has been brewing in recent weeks and, according to the newspaper, the trip to Saudi Arabia has been the straw that broke the camel’s back.

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