Plan A was to stay at Barcelona but after the Catalan club, home for his entire career, ruefully accepted it cannot afford him any more, Lionel Messi was Saturday expected to be about to embark on plan P for Paris. 

French fans and media alike were salivating on the effect the superstar’s mooted arrival at Paris Saint-Germain would have on the club and the French league as a whole amid reports the Argentinian will end up in the capital.