If they welcome his initiative, the Argentine media believe that Lionel Messi was not obliged to apologize after his controversial trip to Saudi Arabia, which earned him to be sanctioned by PSG.
We do not touch the idol of the people. The Argentine press had already raised the tone at the start of the week against PSG and its supporters for the treatment reserved for Lionel Messi, suspended for his unauthorized visit to Saudi Arabia and taken to task by the Parisian ultras on Wednesday. This time, the editorial writers of La Nacion and Olé are stepping up to defend and congratulate the world champion after his public apology. For them, nothing forced him to make amends. According to them, nothing justified such a mea culpa. They still salute what they consider to be an outstretched hand from the former Barcelona player, a gesture of class.
“The owners of PSG are trying to wash their image”
“Messi asked for forgiveness, regretting a fault that was not so serious. Leo did not have to expose himself by recording a video at his home in Paris to tell the planet that he was wrong, that he had missed a training session but he understood that it was important, quite simply, to apologize”, writes journalist Hernan Claus for Olé. And to continue: “Messi has committed a sporting fault. He admits it in his brief 83-word speech, but the player’s error is not proportional to the excessive sanction imposed on him by the club (two weeks without training, without playing and without being paid). It is clear that we are trying to make him pay for the faults of others. The owners of PSG are trying to wash their image with this display of power.”
Reconverted as a consultant for the media Infobae, the former Argentinian defender Oscar Ruggeri, world champion in 1986, goes further. He’s convinced Messi didn’t have to apologize. Because Diego Maradona would probably not have done it. “In Paris, they made sure that he made this video for the supporters and for the image of the club. He did it for his family and his children. He did it to end it before leaving. And it’s good that he’s leaving,” he said. Same felt in the columns of Clarin. “The man who lifted the World Cup at the Lusail stadium had no trouble taking responsibility for the mess that led to such an exaggerated and unprecedented sanction. He put his feet in the dish, explained his version of his resounding absence from training that has become a matter of state”, underlines the daily.
With again a comparison with another number 10: “He could have answered in the style of Diego (Maradona). But Messi appealed to diplomacy and made a gesture of conciliation which, according to the French media, was well welcomed by the Qatari club. The player, beyond the sporting frustrations, wants to leave France, a place where he has – almost always – known a hostile climate. (…) He cut short the media hype and showed ‘a redemptive attitude to try to defuse the witch hunt unleashed in Paris after his trip to Saudi Arabia.
As explained by RMC Sport, Messi’s apology has been heard at PSG. Basically, the player could not ignore that there was training on Monday, the day after the Parisian defeat against Lorient (3-1) in Ligue 1. But that does not change the fact that the seven-time Ballon d’Or will leave France at the end of the season. As for the financial penalties imposed on the Argentine, it concerns the ethics bonus. This should not be paid to him.
