EL PAÍS understands that an agreement in principle is in place and that an official announcement will be made when Messi returns to the Parc des Princes after his vacation. The Parisian club – who are owned by Qatar Sports Investments, a subsidiary of the country’s sovereign wealth fund – have tabled an offer for Messi to extend his contract beyond June 2023, when it is due to expire.

However, that does not appear to be Messi’s fate, despite his brilliant display in the final in Qatar to extinguish the best efforts of France’s star forward and his PSG teammate, Kylian Mbappé.

Maradona, one of two or three players alongside Messi in the all-time debate, did not last long in Serie A after the 1990 World Cup, where he scored the winning penalty in a semi-final shootout against host nation Italy after an ill-tempered encounter: he played his final game for Napoli in March 1991. “Let’s hope the French don’t do to Leo what the Italians did to Diego,” is a common refrain. Meanwhile, Argentineans have started to fear that making good on his status as one of the greatest – many argue the greatest – players of all time may have taken the oxygen out of Messi’s continued ambition. Having secured his career dream of delivering a World Cup to Argentina 36 years after Diego Maradona led the Albiceleste to glory in Mexico, Leo Messi has begun to turn his attention to the next challenge after scaling soccer’s Everest.

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