PSG have ordered for increased security at the club’s training facility and the houses of Lionel Messi and Neymar in response to protests by fans who are unhappy with the team’s performance.
On Wednesday night, some PSG fans gathered in front of the club’s headquarters, where they set off smoke flares and yelled profanities at the team’s underperforming players, Messi, Neymar, and Italian midfielder Marco Verratti.
Then, some of them marched in black clothing to Neymar’s home in a posh neighborhood in Paris while yelling “Neymar, get lost.”
According to two sources who spoke to AFP on the condition of anonymity, the club has decided to increase security at its practice facility and outside the houses of the players singled out during the protests.
One of the sources claimed that some of the fans had said they want to protest every day until Messi, Neymar, and Verratti leave the club.
“Paris Saint-Germain condemns in the strongest possible terms the unacceptable and insulting actions of a small group of individuals,” a club statement said on Wednesday.
“Whatever the differences of opinion, nothing justifies such behavior.”
Messi’s future at PSG was cast into doubt on Wednesday after he was given a two-week suspension for going to Saudi Arabia without the club’s consent to perform an ambassadorial role.
The 35-year-old Argentine football icon who won the World Cup in 2022 is out of contract at the end of the current season, and several teams, including Barcelona, are interested in signing him.
He has drawn jeers from some PSG supporters who see him as the epitome of everything the club has done wrong by putting superstar signings ahead of the creation of a genuinely competitive team.
