PSG has a very important meeting next Tuesday. It’s Newcastle’s reception (9 p.m.) in the Champions League with an obligation to win. A competition that Keylor Navas has not competed in for almost two years. The last time that the three-time winner of the event with Real Madrid (2016, 2017, 2018) appeared on a pitch in C1, it was on November 24, 2021 during a trip from PSG to Manchester City (2-1 defeat). Since then, he has been content with the benches behind Gianluigi Donnarumma, who became number one after a long standoff.
It is also the consequence of the good period that the Italian goalkeeper is going through, he has definitively removed the threat from his competitor. After the first matches of the season, the debate between the two men no longer exists. The Italian plays every match, much to the chagrin of his elder brother. But worse still, the 36-year-old goalkeeper has completely disappeared from the match sheets for a month. After a small back problem at the end of September, Navas suffered a crack in his lumbar vertebrae. His length of unavailability has never been communicated and the capital club has not been alarmist.
Absent from the latest PSG medical press release
“Affected in the lower back, Keylor Navas will remain in the room today”, wrote the club on October 24 before the reception of AC Milan at the Parc des Princes. On November 10, it was this same lower back pain that kept him out of the trip to Reims. Since then, no more news. He has missed his team’s last six matches and was of course not called up by Costa Rica during this international break. Another interesting fact is his absence from PSG’s last medical update before the match against Monaco this Friday. As if this lack of communication ultimately helped everyone.
At the end of his contract next June, Keylor Navas is slowly moving towards the end of his career in Paris, a club he joined in 2019 to take him to the Champions League final the following year, then to the semi-finals. final. His last months in the capital are obviously not up to his talent and what he brought to this team but the high level is ruthless. Luis Enrique had entrusted him with a mission at the start of the season, that of being the locker room guardian if not the first team. His track record and his aura must serve as an example to younger people.
A departure this winter?
This captaincy without an armband is also a way for his coach to take him with him in his project. The departure of the Spanish speakers last summer, especially Sergio Ramos, to whom he is very close, undoubtedly put another blow on his mind, but he and his family feel good in Paris. This is also what made him stay during the last transfer window when he was pushed out. Clubs in the Premier League, but also Inter and Fenerbahçe had inquired. He had even refused a golden bridge from Al-Hilal. The question of his future will arise again this winter, especially as he has a play-off against Honduras in March to participate in the Copa America next summer. It still needs to be put back on its feet.
