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PARIS. — Lionel Messi has agreed a two-year deal to join Paris St-Germain following his shock exit from Barcelona, says BBC Sport columnist Guillem Balague. 

The Argentina captain, 34, passed his medical here yesterday and will be unveiled in the auditorium of the Parc des Princes today at 11am. 

Mauricio Pochettino’s PSG finished second to Lille in Ligue 1 last season. 

Considered one of the greatest players of all time, Messi scored a record 672 goals in 778 games for Barca, the club he joined as a 13-year-old. 

He won the Ballon d’Or a record six times and lifted 35 trophies with the Catalan club.

The signing of Messi — who would be reunited with former Barca team-mate Neymar at the Parc des Princes — is one of the most noteworthy captures in football’s history. 

He will play in a front three alongside the two most expensive players of all time — Neymar and Kylian Mbappe. 

He will become PSG’s fourth free-transfer signing this summer after the arrivals of Netherlands midfielder Georginio Wijnaldum, Spain defender Sergio Ramos and Italy goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. 

Highly-rated Morocco right-back Achraf Hakimi also joined from Inter Milan.

PSG are yet to win the Champions League in a decade of Qatari ownership and subsequent heavy investment, with the 2020 final defeat against Bayern Munich the closest they have come. 

Balague said: “Clearly what PSG’s ownership want is a team that is in the Champions League final every year. 

“With Messi you have an advantage. Pochettino being in charge and his contract being renewed as well means they have an idea how to do that and Messi will complement that. 

“They will win the league, that’s almost a given now, even though they lost last season. It will be a less competitive league which means he will be fresh of course, or should be, for the Champions League campaign.” 

Messi had agreed a new deal — on 50% of his old wages — to stay at Barcelona but the club could not afford to implement it because they were so far above the wage limit allowed by La Liga. 

“He used to earn 140m euros gross a year at Barca, that’s around £125m,” said Balague. “Take off about 40-50% for tax. 

“He agreed to stay at Barcelona by reducing his wages by 50%, not more than that because that’s illegal (under Spanish law). Basically the league wouldn’t believe he was reducing his wages to zero, which is what Barcelona may have tried to do as they are 1bn euros in debt. Basically they cannot afford him.” 

He could make his PSG debut at home to Strasbourg on Saturday.

Sadness in Barcelona, Joy in Paris

The sadness in Barcelona is probably best captured by Spanish football journalist, Alvaro Romeo’s comments on BBC Radio 5 Live yesterday. 

“Very sad to be honest. At the end of the day Lionel Messi was a way of watching football as well. I’ve been for the last 15 or 17 years watching Barcelona games, looking at the bottom right corner of my screen or the left top corner of my screen or wherever Messi was. Basically the game was what Messi did. 

“It was all about him, the magic he could create. When I was watching Barcelona in the past I was watching Messi and ten more players. The sadness is tremendous for the city of Barcelona. 

“As well you have seen many people asking Messi, begging Messi to stay in the Barcelona training facilities as well but that didn’t happen and it is a tremendous loss for Barcelona and La Liga as well because let’s not forget that La Liga is a brand itself Lionel Messi was the best player they have.

“Was PSG move inevitable? Definitely. Number one Lionel Messi wasn’t staying at Barca and two there’s only one candidate that made a genuinely good offer for Messi.

“PSG is his destination after a long time at which it looked like Lionel Messi could end up being a Barcelona player again. But the club couldn’t meet the La Liga’s financial salary cap and Messi had to depart Barcelona. 

“He thought last Thursday that he was going to sign for Barcelona for another two years and in the end Barcelona took the contract from his hands and told him they couldn’t offer him that contract.” — BBC Sport.