Jonathan Johnson's Mercato Magazine - What next for Lionel Messi? Could Chelsea revive interest in Achraf Hakimi? Plus the latest on Kolo Muani, Todibo, and more

Our man in Ligue 1 is back with another exclusive column!

Lionel Messi is now in a similar situation to Cristiano Ronaldo as he looks to stay in Europe

What a crazy 48 hours it’s been for Lionel Messi and PSG. To start with, the incident that really sparked all this was Messi’s unauthorised trip to Saudi Arabia. PSG had just lost 3-1 at home to Lorient as what is really turning out to be a poor season continued. The players were informed in the dressing room after the game that instead of having a couple of days off as they might normally have, there would be no break and they were expected to report for training on Monday morning. Messi was part of the team that got beaten by Lorient, but on Monday he wasn’t in training and that’s when PSG realised there was a problem, and it quickly transpired that he was in Saudi Arabia, which was not well received by the club at all.

A decision was then taken at the very top, with Nasser Al-Khelaifi being keen to set an example and make it clear he had a zero-tolerance policy for this kind of behaviour. Messi was then suspended for a two-week period, heavily fined, and barred even from attending training sessions or using any of PSG’s facilities during that period.

On his future, PSG put a contract offer on the table for Messi a few months ago. To be clear, this hasn’t been taken off the table, but equally there has been no response, either a clear yes or a clear no from Messi or his entourage. It is now expected that there won’t be any movement from either side, and the situation now is that it’s widely expected that Messi’s contract will just tick down and expire at the end of June.