Messi Signs Two-Year Deal with PSG

Paris, August 11 (QNA) - Lionel Messi joined star-packed Paris St Germain on Tuesday after leaving Barcelona, the club where he had begun and expected to end his career. Messi, a six-times winner of the Ballon d'Or for Europe's best soccer player, signed a two-year contract with an option for a third year, the club said in a statement on its website. The move will add the Argentine, one of the best players of his generation, to an already formidable PSG attack that includes Brazil's Neymar and French World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe. "I am excited to begin a new chapter of my career at Paris Saint-Germain," PSG quoted Messi as saying. "I am determined to help build something special for the club and the fans, and I am looking forward to stepping out onto the pitch at the Parc des Princes." He leaves Barcelona with 672 goals in 778 appearances, a record tally for one club. "He has made no secret of his desire to continue competing at the very highest level and winning trophies, and naturally our ambition as a club is to do the same," PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi said. Neymar and Mbappe were already the two most expensive soccer players in history, and the addition of Messi to Mauricio Pochettino's PSG line-up could rival the unstoppable triumvirate that he formed at Barcelona with Neymar and Luis Suarez. This summer PSG have already added veteran Spanish defender Sergio Ramos from Real Madrid and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, the star of Euro 2020. They have also signed Georginio Wijnaldum from Liverpool, snatching the Netherlands' midfielder from under the noses of Barcelona, and spent 60 million euros on Inter Milan right-back Achraf Hakimi, who scored on his PSG league debut at the weekend. Messi will wear the number 30 shirt, the club confirmed in a video posted on its Twitter feed, headlined "a new diamond in Paris". (QNA)