Excellent since the start of the season, Vitinha had an altercation with Lionel Messi last year during training with PSG.
Voted best player of the match Tuesday evening in the Champions League against Borussia Dortmund (2-0), Vitinha has had a very good start to the season with Paris Saint-Germain. The Portuguese has regained color, and forms an effective trio in midfield with Manuel Ugarte and Warren Zaire-Emery.
How to explain this change for the former FC Porto player? By the arrival of a new coach, Luis Enrique? Another explanation is suggested by L’Equipe, which recalls that Vitinha was not necessarily well accepted in the locker room last season. It was in particular Lionel Messi who hardly appreciated him, and who saw in the Portuguese the symbol of the insufficient recruitment in terms of quality carried out by Luis Campos.
There was even an altercation between Vitinha and Messi during training last season. Touched by the Portuguese during an opposition, the seven-time Ballon d’Or would have roughly said this to his teammate: “Not only are you weak, but you’re hurting me. » This episode would have done a lot of damage to the confidence of the midfielder, who would have even considered leaving. In the end it was Messi who left and, coincidence or not, things are going much better for Vitinha…
