Lionel Messi & PSG - A 'messy' affair or just a rocky start?

Lionel Messi will perhaps always be synonymous with Barcelona. But now that he is no longer in Spain, after bidding an emotional goodbye to his childhood club, Messi needs to embrace the Paris way of life. After all, he made the choice to go to Paris St Germain (PSG) and join Ligue 1. When Messi signed with Paris Saint-Germain in August last year, the statement that was released said - "Everything about the club matches my football ambitions." But, over five months down the line, one of the biggest talking points continues to be - is Messi struggling to fit in there? Is he not managing to adapt and reorient himself to the French way of things after spending 21 years in Spain? After scoring a mind boggling 672 goals in 778 matches for Barcelona FC, Messi has had the least productive start to a season ever in his career. He has also been plagued by knee and hamstring niggles. There's no doubt whatsoever that Messi is an absolute magician. He will go down in the history books as one of the all time greatest players to have played the beautiful game. Barring a World Cup medal, Messi has won everything else. Argentina's 28 year wait for the Copa America title, which ended last year, also gave him his first prominent piece of silverware with the senior National team.

(Getty Images)As far as club football is concerned, to be fair, adjusting to a completely different country, with very different weather, food, people and style of football played can be very difficult. Someone like Karim Benzema in fact has said - "It is just a period of adaptation, because he is not scoring a lot of goals....But watch what he does on the pitch" indicating that what he has seen of Messi on the field has shown that he is doing fine, regardless of