The Sporting Director of PSG Leonardo was a guest today of the Trento Festival in the event “Leonardo and the Psg phenomenon”, Moderated by Alessandro Grandesso e G.B. Olivero. The Brazilian manager of the Parisians was a real river in flood, and in addition to telling several anecdotes about his professional life, as a football player Milan and of Selection first and then as an executive, he also unveiled some truly sensational market background.
There were two main interventions by Leonardo. The first, which we report below, concerns the behavior of the Real Madrid towards Kylian Mbappé, expiring with PSG and persistently sought by Florentino Perez, so much to offer 180 million in the summer just to have it right away. In the end there was nothing to do and the French phenomenon remained under the Eiffel Tower, but needless to say, relations between the two clubs are more tense than ever. Leonardo, a “football worker” as he defines himself, draws a parallel between the story Mbappé and that of Gigio Donnarumma, arrived on a free transfer since Milan:
“Donnarumma, if I may say one thing, it is a difficult situation. Because I realize. But we have never contacted Donnarumma before June. They communicated that they would not renew, they take Maignan, then there were internal things that happened. In June we talked about this situation, we talked and decided to do so. There was never a job to make it go away to zero. The story Mbappé is different: there was a job, two years, that speak publicly about him. As it was normal. We have communicated many times to Real Madrid that we were not happy. I think it is something to be sanctioned, it is not normal. We are talking about one of the best in the world. I don’t think it’s the right kind of approach to a player like that for a long time. Everyone talks about it. He is in the last year of his contract, but theirs is a lack of respect ”.
The second intervention concerns the impact of Leo messi on the world PSG. A chatted arrival, which condemns the team of Nasser Al-Khelaifi to win the Champions League to avoid seasonal failure. How do you convince a player like Messi to leave the Barca and to move to Paris? The word persuade doesn’t like that much Leonardo, which as he himself reveals does not work in this way:
“I don’t like the issue of convincing, relationships can never be a favor. It is a construction, the arrival of someone in a place I think is very important. I think laying the foundations for the following years is very important. Let’s start with Messi, even if it is the end: it adds to Neymar e Mbappé, then there’s Paris, which creates this thing. Managing and balancing this thing, money is not enough. Mainly it is not that the PSG invests more money than others. There are other clubs that have entrances higher than the Paris Saint Germain. I do not enter in figures, but the PSG has 4/5 or 3/4 of the entries of other teams, with much more debt. The PSG pays all his investments. I go back to Messi: he was convinced to stay at Barcelona, we had contacts, because it is clear, we talked. Then there was never the true idea of who had the intention. We laid the foundation for exchanging ideas, this put us in an easier position when the Barcelona when it doesn’t stay. From there he starts and it was beautiful, it was a blow for everyone, because he is a world player. The way it comes … It’s Messi’s first transfer, getting out of there and changing, it’s a new thing. He has an impacting silence, he arrives as if he were the last, speaking little, greeting everyone. He is a person who makes you admire him from the first moment “.
Among the many anecdotes told by the Brazilian executive, one of the most significant was the one concerning his passage from Milan (where he made his debut with the now famous and romantic 4-2-fantasy module) atInter, always in the role of coach:
“I didn’t think there would be so much controversy, it was hard for me to walk away from Milan, it was a great loss, but the relationship was over for 6 months. I hadn’t decided yet whether to go on as a manager or go back to being a manager, it was Massimo Moratti to change everything. When he called me I thought saying no would be like dying. I knew I was headed for something complicated but not that much. Baggio had played in the Milan and inInter, also Ronaldo, I didn’t think there could be such negative reactions. But if there is dispute it is because there was a feeling before ”.
In particular, the banner displayed by the Rossoneri corner with the wording has remained in the collective memory “Inter Judas” on the occasion of Milan derby following the arrival of Leonardo in the Nerazzurri. One thing that the interested party himself did not expect, and that compromised the whole game:
“There are others much worse. It was certainly a way of expressing disappointment, a betrayal. Having lived what I have lived, I thought there was something positive. What struck me was the weather in the stadium. Crossing people I’ve known for 20 years and didn’t know what to do. It was quite surreal. When I arrived at Inter we were thirteenth, it was a great ride and we had two points behind. That was also a little finisher, there were so many things in there. I was sorry for the Inter players, because I had compromised the situation. duck he scores after three minutes, there were ninety of everything and more ”.
OMNISPORT | 09-10-2021 23:00
