Where next for Lionel Messi? | Julien Laurens discusses the options available

Now Lionel Messi has played his last game for PSG and the attention now turns to whether he'll return to Barcelona. Reports this lunchtime that he's met with Joan Laporte today to discuss the move. ESPN's Julien Leroy joins us live now. Good afternoon to you Julien. Then Messi booed actually by certain PSG fans. Do you think his time in France has been seen as a bit of a failure? Hi Vicky, hi everyone. It's hard to tell. I mean it's not hard to tell you won two league titles, won this season albeit just by one point of a loss, one last season. I guess he didn't come to win Ligue 1 because they did it without him. He came to try to win the Champions League and on that point both the teams were knocked out in the last 16 against Bayern Munich this season convincingly and against Real Madrid in that crazy remontada a year ago. So on that point I think you're right. It was not the success that a lot of people expected. Certainly on the pitch, off the pitch in terms of marketing and sponsoring and everything. This has taken PSG to another level without a doubt. On the pitch his numbers are really good. Again this season he's had 20 goals and 20 assists in all competitions. Only Vinicius Junior in the big five leagues in Europe has as many. So clearly he was still amazing and especially in the first half of the season before the World Cup. But overall just because of that Champions League failure it's not I think what a lot of people expected when he signed in Paris. Obviously it was a success at Barcelona and Xavi said that bringing him back to that club is their priority this summer. Do you think they can financially make it work? That's the big question really. I mean of today it's not possible. They can't sign him even as a free agent because they don't have space for him in the wage bill even with the departure of Busquets and Jordi Albas. So they will have to sell first and to reduce the wage bill before being able to offer Messi anything. And you mentioned earlier that there was a meeting between George and Messi. So Messi's dad and Joao Laporta in Barcelona. Messi himself Lionel is in Barcelona with the family in the house. But until Barca sell a Francaise for example maybe Rafinha maybe Ansu Fati as well when they make that money available then it's not possible to sign him. The question is how long is Messi going to wait. How long is he ready to wait for all of those pieces of the jigsaw getting together. Because if he wants a quick answer there won't be quick answer. Barca can't sell those players in the next two weeks for example. He will have to wait more. I believe and I understand that he wants quite quick resolution in a way he wants to know where he's going to play next season as early as possible for his holidays for preseason plans anything. There's a lot of things that come in consideration for a footballer like that when he's out of contract. So if Barca can move quickly then I his priority is definitely to go back to Barcelona. He's also their priority and there's another question on tactically how this is going to work. However they need to sell before being able to offer him a contract. Well you talked about money there a little bit there. Obviously Saudi have convinced Karim Benzema to move there. It's a huge deal. Do you think it'll be hard for Messi to ignore huge numbers? Well it was certainly the case for Karim Benzema. There's a point where if you offered 400 million euros over two years even more than that for Messi it's difficult to say no. I think even with all the money that all those players have earned already and they've earned a lot. For Messi the fact is this is the only offer he has on the table right now. The one from Saudi Arabia from Ali Hal. That's all. There's nothing else from Barcelona. There was nothing from PSG. There's nothing from MLS and into Miami for example. So right now that's all he's got. There might be more coming of course from maybe other leagues England and Germany Italy I don't know wherever. But right now that's all he has. So he will wait a little bit see what Barca can come up with. And again I don't think it will be about the money and Barca won't have to make him an offer as high as the one in Saudi of course. But they can't or he won't play for free either. So Barca still have to come up with the numbers decent numbers for him for him to accept that deal. But right now it's a very tempting offer from Saudi Arabia. Yes I can imagine. Look Harry Kane is believed to be Real Madrid's number one target isn't he to replace Karim Benzema with reports that the club are even reserving the number nine shirt for him. Do you think he'd be a good fit there. I think it would be an amazing fit Vicky. I won't lie. I mean as you know Karim Benzema is is my guy. And I think if if you were to ask anyone who work in football I ask you you ask me a number nine who has a kind of a similar profile to Karim Benzema in Europe right now. Harry Kane will be the first name in our mind because they're not completely similar but they play in a similar way in the sense that they're almost as much as a number 10 as a number nine. Both of them. And I think if you put Harry Kane into this Real Madrid team currently with Vinicius with Rodrigo with the midfield that he will have behind him he will do a lot of things that Karim Benzema has been doing since Cristiano Ronaldo left. And just for that I think in terms of profile it's the perfect fit. Then it ticks all the boxes of course despite his age. Let's not forget it's a lot of money to invest on someone who's going to be 30. But he's still an amazing player one of the best in the world. And to replace Karim Benzema you need one of the best players in the world. You need a world class striker. And Harry Kane is the one that they clearly want on that. What's the good thing for Real Madrid is that Daniel Levy wants to sell abroad and not in England. What's against Real Madrid is that Harry Kane clearly would like to stay a bit longer in England to beat Alan Shearer's Premier League scoring records which he won't be able to do if he goes to Real Madrid. So it'd be interesting to see what Harry Kane wants to do. Can you say no to Real Madrid? A lot of players in the past have said that once that trend comes you usually go on it. Yeah it's fascinating isn't it. I agree with you. I'd be interested to see what he actually does do. What about Chelsea then? Remarkably they're still in the market for getting players in it would seem. But they appear to have given up on the signing of Manuel Ugarte with PSG looking like his more likely destination. Is that what you're hearing? Yes exactly. He's arrived in Paris today. Ugarte for his medicals and then signing his contract. Three days ago you would have asked me Chelsea were clearly in the lead. They were the front runners. Their offer was more appreciated let's say by Sporting Club de Portugal more than the PSG one. Then PSG made a counter offer which we maybe didn't expect of that level and Chelsea could not follow and got out of the race really. So it was only PSG Ugarte very happy to go there. Marco Asensio is the other player that PSG are going to sign today or tomorrow. And for Chelsea well Ugarte was the name they wanted in midfield to rebuild that midfield to partner him with Enzo Fernandez next season. Pochettino was a big fan of the Uruguayan international. It's not going to be him. So they will need to find that number six to play alongside Enzo in this rebuild midfield for next season. And there are not many like Ugarte. He's young. He's very aggressive maybe a little bit too much. Take a lot of yellow cards but he's a very interesting player. Some say that PSG paid too much for him which is probably true to be fair just above the release close. But for Chelsea now the search for another number six of that kind of calibre is on again. What about Neymar then because Messi paid quite an emotional tribute to him. Can you see him going this summer? Certainly PSG. I think I've opened the door. I mean not just the door the windows the French doors anything you want for him to go. They're just waiting for someone to be interested. We know that there were talks about Manchester United which were not really true. But we know that Pini Zahavi who's working on Neymar's behalf especially here in England in the UK is working really hard to see if he can find him a club. I think Chelsea are quite keen to of course now. And I think he would like the Premier League but he would also like to play in the Premier League which Chelsea don't have. So again a bit like for the hurricane there's a lot of things coming into this debate and this discussion. But I think he wants to go. He was also booed on Saturday in the title celebrations in Paris like Messi like Galtier. He doesn't really want to be there anymore. It will all be done I think to who comes for him at what price what wages and what kind of competition is those clubs play. So Chelsea are still I think quite high on his list and he's quite high on theirs. But there's there's a lot more work to be done on this one. This of us not to talk about the big man Zlatan of course announcing his retirement yesterday. Where is he ranked do you think among the greats of his era? One of the greatest I think Vicky. I mean of course we can argue on why he's won and he for example hasn't won the Champions League which is the only big thing missing really. But when he came to England quite late in his career I think he showed that he could do it on a Tuesday night under the rain or stuck or wherever the sentence goes. He did it in France of course in Italy as well in Spain. It was a difficult relationship with Pep Guardiola but he still had really good numbers and in MLS as well. He was an amazing player. The charisma the personality of course but also someone that big that strong with with quick feats like he did. He scored some amazing goals and I mean England fans of course will remember the ones against England with Sweden especially the overhead kick from the halfway line. But just an incredible player. I think we won't see we won't we won't see again someone like Zlatan and we will miss him a lot. He will stay in football whether it's as an agent or a sporting director somewhere. He's got too much to give to the game but it was a really sad day and for him to be so emotional and you don't see him that emotional usually. I think it meant a lot to him. Yeah it was magical wasn't it? Could we see him as a coach? Who knows? Always great to talk to you. Thanks Julian. Thank you.