Lionel Messi’s arrival in Paris was downright regal, with soccer fans waiting eagerly for his plane to land Tuesday, then Messi standing for a kingly wave from the balcony of his hotel. On Wednesday, though, he was all business as he addressed his departure from Barcelona and his future with Paris Saint-Germain.
Leaving Barcelona, where he became one of the most recognizable and popular soccer players in the world, was “a difficult change,” he admitted as he did Sunday in a tearful goodbye in Spain.
“I’m very happy,” he told reporters, speaking in Spanish (via an interpreter), in a news conference in PSG’s Parc des Princes stadium.