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Round of 16 tie
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Incredibly, for the first time in his entire career, football legend Lionel Messi will face a former team in club football. Having spent the bulk of his career at Barcelona, he never faced the Catalan side during his two years at Paris-Saint-Germain, nor did he face Barca or PSG after moving continents to Inter Miami in 2023. However, that will all change this Sunday. The MLS side are set to face Luis Enrique's Champions League winners in Atlanta, Georgia in the round of 16 of the Club World Cup. The eight-time Ballon d'Or winner certainly had his issues in Paris, and there is little love lost between Messi and PSG.
Despite winning the league in both seasons at the club, fans and French media took aim at the World Cup winner after he was suspended for two weeks for taking an unsanctioned trip to Saudi Arabia in May 2023. The front three of Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappé was supposed to be one for the ages, but some supporters even ended up turned on Messi at the Parc Des Princes, booing his name from the stands and criticising the Argentine's commitment. Messi has achieved pretty much everything you can in football and is undisputedly one of, if not the, best footballer to play the play the game, but dragging an Inter Miami team with a squad value of just €66m past the Champions of Europe would be some feat. Let's take a look at how Messi's records compare in France and the United States.
Lionel Messi: Inter Miami & PSG records compared
Firstly, it must be said that of course the MLS is of a much lower standard than France's Ligue 1, which is among Europe's top-five leagues. However, Messi is of course older now he is in the States and the comparison of the Argentine's time at the two clubs still makes for interesting reading. During his time in the French capital, Messi made 75 appearances for PSG, and managed 0.43 goals per game. Although this is still not a bad output, it's the lowers goalscoring rate of his prolific career.
If we then compare that to the 0.81 goals per game he has scored in his 62 matches at Inter Miami we can see he has been finding the back of the net a lot more often. This is obviously mainly down to the poorer opposition, but it should also be remembered that he has less talented and valuable teammate nows, and PSG are a team who usually dominate Ligue 1. However, as illustrated above, Messi did manager a better hit rate of assists at PSG than he has thus far at Inter Miami, with 0.47 assists per game in Paris and 0.39 assists per game in Miami. He won two Ligue 1 titles and a French Super Cup with the Parisians, whilst he has lifted the Leagues Cup and the Supporters Shield for the MLS side.
