Two years after leaving Paris Saint-Germain, Marco Verratti is about to experience a new adventure. At the end of the contract, the transalpine midfielder left Al-Arabi to join Al-Duhail, vice-champion of Qatar. He notably found Benjamin Bourigeaud, who is full of praise about him.
“Marco is someone I discover as a human, because as a player, I have already known him for a very long time. When I started my professional career, he was already in Paris Saint-Germain so seeing him arrive in our locker room and seeing him in my workforce is necessarily a pleasure to be able to evolve with such a player next to me, he said about him with Foot Mercato. It's a chance to be able to find myself in the middle with such a player. He is a player I admired despite the fact that he is not a lot older than me. »»
And despite his departure from the capital's club, the former Pescara is still linked to the red and blue. Questioned in the columns of the Gazzetta dello Sportthe European champion also remembered a particularly strong moment of his eleven years spent in Paris: the arrival of Lionel Messi in the summer of 2021.
Marco Verratti left to take up a new challenge
“I remember a fantastic, almost magical evening. We were in Ibiza, Neymar came to see me and told me that we died with Leo Messi that evening. So we found ourselves at the table: Leo, Paredes, Ney and Di Maria. We discussed and had a great time. And we have, so to speak, encouraged to come to Paris ”, he said.
“Late in the evening, we said to each other, and the next day, we learned that there were problems between him and Barcelona. Then, at the beginning of the afternoon, Neymar called me: “Marco, Leo comes to us. »Incredible: to have it to dinner to have it as a teammate. A magical evening ”, He added before mentioning his departure from the capital.
“I assure you that discussions with Nasser (al-KhelaĂŻfi) go back much further, I told him that I was going because I wanted new challenges”, he assured.
