Posted December 5, 2021 at 4.30 p.m. by HG
While PSG seem to face many internal conflicts, Leonardo's head is increasingly threatened within the capital club a little over two years after his comeback.
After a first brilliant passage between 2011 and 2013 in the costume of sports director of Paris Saint-Germain, Leonardo made his return to the French capital in the summer of 2019. Only here, the less than the we can say is that the current record of this comeback is very far from brilliant. By his own admission, the former sports boss of AC Milan fails to sell, and this has been one of his main missions since his arrival. Last summer, for example, when PSG wanted to separate certain elements in order to garner liquidity and above all to downsize its workforce provided digitally but not qualitatively enough, the only player sold by Leonardo was Mitchel Bakker at Bayer Leverkusen against 10 M € bonus included. Otherwise, for Alphonse Areola or Pablo Sarabia , it was all about loans. Layvin Kurawa , Rafinha , Sergio Rico or even Julian Draxler notably stayed in Paris , also blocking the inflow of money and places for the young shoots of the workforce to whom Leonardo nevertheless promised a place during the negotiations for their future contract as Edouard Michut , who signed until 2025, or Xavi Simons , at the end of the contract on June 30, to name a few.
At the same time, other choices of Leonardo raise questions. The extension of Layvin Kurzawa until 2024 in particular, with a salary revised upwards, when he has never managed to show his best face for years and he was heading finally towards a free departure. The same goes for Julian Draxler at the end of last season. The choices in terms of recruitment are not great either. Yes, this summer window of the 2021 transfers was beautiful with the arrivals of Leo Messi , Gigio Donnarumma or even Achraf Hakimi , although no big reinforcement in the middle has been recorded to have an alternative to Marco Verratti . But before that, the record was disappointing to say the least. Mauro Icardi turned out to be a real flop, while players like Danilo Pereira or Rafinha are struggling to convince. And that's without mentioning the fact that both Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino encountered relationship problems with Leonardo , the first city of 'not even hesitating to go up to the front publicly, something which partly justified his dismissal last January.
Leonardo, an increasingly contested figure
In short, the least we can say is that Leonardo clearly no longer seems to be unanimous in PSG , something which was also advanced by Romain Molina recently, the independent journalist claiming that the Brazilian is not appreciated by many people within the club. And among the detractors would appear in particular Kylian Mbappé , he who would demand outright the departure of Leonardo among his conditions to extend his contract expiring on June 30, according to Daniel Riolo . “It's a huge mess! We can't even imagine the mess there is at Paris Saint-Germain, with Kylian Mbappé threatening to quit, who has already said: “I'm leaving if I don't have the biggest salary in the world. club”. He wants the club's biggest paycheck, he says. The only tracks for him to stay, is that it is not that coach, that Leonardo, if he can break it suits everyone, and that he has the biggest salary of the club ”, affirmed recently the consultant of RMC Sport.
Another thing, the presence of Leonardo could even be a brake on the arrival of Zinedine Zidane , target number 1 of the Parisian staff to replace Mauricio Pochettino as we announced to you on le10sport.com. The deal is very simple: if we are to believe the information recently unveiled by FootMercato, the French would not intend to work with Leonardo if he joins PSG . In fact, the former technician of Real Madrid would like to have a stranglehold on the sports sector and not have the former Brazilian international in the paws in order to avoid finding himself in situations similar to those lived by Thomas Tuchel and Mauricio Pochettino . Starting from there, as well to name Zinedine Zidane on his bench only to cherish the now crippled hope of an extension of Kylian Mbappé , the PSG could have no other choice but to separate from its director athletic. The question now is whether the Parisian general staff will act in this direction, but the stakes are clearly high for the Ile-de-France team.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic has applied to replace him and restore order at PSG
In addition, skepticism towards Leonardo even seems to have won over very informed observers of PSG , like Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Indeed, in his new book, the Swedish giant passed through the Parisian club between 2012 and 2016 was clearly not tender towards his former sports director by pointing out what he considers to be a lack of authority on his part. “I have nothing personal against Leonardo. On the contrary, I like him, he's the one who made me come to PSG. I can not blame him, but I know the difference between us: me, I do not ask, I order ”, first slipped Zlatan Ibrahimovic before painting a not very shining picture on the working atmosphere respect for instructions at PSG . “If a player receives an order, he says: 'Okay, that's fine', then he complains to Nasser, who agrees with him and so the sporting director finds himself in a weak position. But if the sporting director is me and this player tries to behave like that, this is the first and last time he's done that. Guaranteed ”, he continued.
In short, according to Zlatan Ibrahimovic , a big change is necessary at PSG , and it is precisely this which led him to offer his services to the club as a sporting director before finally extending his contract at AC Milan . A perspective from which Nasser Al-Khelaïfi and Parisian players would not have been opposed if we are to believe the words of the now 40-year-old Rossoneri striker: “Summer 2021. It's true, I offered myself to PSG, but not as a footballer . As a sports director. I called Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, the president, and I proposed to him: “If I do not renew my contract with Milan, I will come to PSG and I will restore order to your team”. Nasser laughed, but he didn't say no. Mino Raiola also agreed. He said, “This is your ideal role. You have to go, period.” (…) Raiola knew very well that he could never detach me from Milan, but he agreed with me: if I had not extended the contract, the role of manager at Paris-Saint-Germain, that would have been the good future. Even the PSG players I spoke to thought so. One said to me: “Zlatan, only you can restore order and bring discipline to the team.” Another: “Zlatan, if it was you, that thing in the locker room wouldn't have happened.” I liked the project but that was not enough to prevent the feeling of fear and panic I felt at the idea of stopping my football career ”. Will Zlatan Ibrahimovic be appointed as the successor of Leonardo in the near future? While this is not guaranteed, it is nevertheless clear that the position of the current PSG sporting director is weakening. It remains to be seen what will be the end of this whole situation.