Fans of Paris Saint-Germain Football Club (PSG) have sprayed graffiti on the walls of the club's training centres, venting their frustration after their team crashed out of the Champions League, according to “Culture PSG” and L’Équipe.
Paris Saint-Germain was knocked out of the Champions League by Real Madrid on 9 March, with the Spanish team progressing to the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals by an aggregate score of 3-2.
Soccer Football - Ligue 1 - Paris St Germain v AS Saint-Etienne - Parc des Princes, Paris, France - February 26, 2022 Paris St Germain's Lionel Messi and Neymar
© REUTERS / CHRISTIAN HARTMANN
Angry graffitied messages at Parc des Princes and Camp des Loges, where the Parisian team exercises, included calls for Argentine superstar, Lionel Messi, club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi and the sporting director Leonardo, to quit.
“Leo FDP,” one message reportedly read, using a French slang for “son of a b****.” Another purportedly read: "Leo/Nasser NTM", slang for “f*** your mother.”
Other graffiti is described as deploring “10 years of mediocrity” under Qatar Sports Investment, led by Al-Khelaifi.
“Paris will never be Qatari”, “Paris is ours” stated some other tags, reported L’Équipe.
“These insulting messages against the players and the club’s management extend over almost 40 meters. The cleaning teams of the city of Saint-Germain-en-Laye are on site to erase them. In the Parc des Princes, the messages were still present a short time ago, although obviously a clean-up will be carried out shortly,” wrote the French outlet.
This outburst of venting followed a recent incident when PSG striker Lionel Messi received a cold welcome from fans during a game in Ligue 1. The Argentinian was booed at by the club’s supporters during a home match against Bordeaux. Another football celebrity, Brazilian Neymar, was similarly jeered at by fans as the two players’ names were announced at the stadium as well every time either of them touched the ball in the game that ended with PSG’s 3-0 victory on Sunday.
Both Messi and Neymar felt the full force of fans’ ire after Paris Saint-Germain suffered a crushing exit from the Champions League against Real Madrid earlier. The French club had won the first game (1-0) in Paris and appeared in control, leading 2-0 on aggregate after Kylian Mbappe’s first-half strike at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid.
However, in the long run the two South American icons failed to deliver, while Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema scored a hat-trick in the final 30 minutes, sealing a 3-2 comeback win on aggregate.
Lionel Messi was also criticised for his penalty miss against Real Madrid in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 tie on 15 February.