MY ACCOUNT
Lionel Messi is unsure how much longer he will continue playing, but is enjoying his football following a tough period of adaptation at Paris Saint-Germain.
Messi endured a difficult first season after swapping Barcelona for PSG last August, scoring 11 goals in 34 appearances – his lowest scoring campaign since 2005-06, when he was 18 years old.
The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner has looked rejuvenated this season, though, already hitting the net 12 times as well as laying on 14 assists.
PSG team-mate Neymar and Manchester City’s Erling Haaland are the only players in Europe’s top five leagues to have matched his total of 26 goal involvements this term.
However, speaking to Movistar ahead of Argentina’s World Cup campaign, the 35-year-old hinted the end of his playing career may not be too far away, though he expects to stay in football when he does retire.
“I love playing and I enjoy it, the only thing I’ve done all my life is play football and I’m sure it [a future role] will be related, although I don’t know what,” Messi said.
“I don’t think I’ll play much more. I don’t know, so many things happen. It was a dream that I always had as a child, to be able to play for Argentina.
“But today it depends on many things. I have my family, three children, I just had a very big change in my life that cost me and my whole family a lot. Today I got over it, and we feel spectacular.”
Asked whether he feels more comfortable on the pitch after spending a year bedding in at the Parc des Princes, Messi said: “That’s true, I am enjoying it much more, I am discovering the city and I think it’s beautiful.
“The first year was a huge change for me, everything went wrong because it all came out of the blue and it was not a decision I was aiming for, leaving Barcelona was sudden.
“After this long process and tough moments, today I’m happy to be living where I live, and me and my family are enjoying Paris.”
Recalling his first season in Ligue 1, Messi said: “It was hard, we had been in the same place all our lives. I had never moved and I didn’t know how it would be, plus it was not a decision we made.
“It came all of a sudden. We had to leave Barcelona overnight and found ourselves where everything was new.
“We had our lives in Barcelona with friends, places and people, and you have to get to know other places, with another language, other football, other weather.
“I suffered a lot, it was hard. But today I am enjoying everything, including football.”
