Split by the prime meridian of East 47th Street, the Paris Saint-Germain and Adidas stores on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue are a tale of two cities.
Walk into the PSG store – the team’s American flagship sandwiched between a jewelry store and an H&M – and it’s noticeable: The air is heavy with mourning. After two seasons of playing for the Paris team, soccer demigod Lionel Messi is leaving. And not only that, he’s leaving for Inter-Miami and the MLS. It’s like if Steve Carrell left The Office to do dinner theater.
Damien Bryan, the PSG store manager, who is in charge of custom jersey orders, has been muddling through the transition. When rumors of Messi’s departure circulated before the official announcement, PSG corporate instructed him not to make any more Messi customs. That meant turning away customers buying jerseys with the Argentine’s name and the telltale 10 emblazoned on the back.
“They switched up like a week later, though,” Bryan says. “They were leaving so much money on the table.”
Prior to his stint in Paris, Messi spent 17 years at Barcelona, emerging from the academy in 2004 as a 17-year-old Galactico. He only made the move to Paris in 2021 as Barça struggled with its finances. When he did, the French newspaper L’Equipe reported that PSG’s merchandising revenue shot up by 40%, or about €60 million ($67 million). PSG president Nasser al Khelaifi, who also serves as chairman of Qatar Sports Investments, claimed last June that Messi generated about €700 million ($786 million) for PSG in his first year on the team. PSG declined to comment on this story.
The hard truth is that PSG, which dominates the less-and-less competitive Ligue 1 in France, isn’t just losing an enormously popular player with a record seven Ballons d’Or, it’s losing the brand. Kylian Mbappe, the hometown hero, is rumored to be on the way out as well. This begs the question of whether PSG is still a brand worthy of Fifth Avenue. As it stands, PSG employees have been told not to display Messi merch in front of the store, but Messi jerseys – even outdated Messi jerseys – remain some of the more popular items. Messi is bigger than PSG and those blue and red stripes are about to fall out of fashion.
“The popularity is not going to last,” says Bryan. It’s a sober statement. It’s sad.
Across the street, Adidas, the official supplier for MLS and therefore of Inter Miami, is throwing a party. “Bienvenido a Miami” read a dozen signs in a running ticker tape throughout the store. Overhead lights infuse everything on sale with bright pink, the color of Inter Miami’s jerseys. And just in case that staging is too subtle, a mural of Messi photos covers the wall by the first floor cash register. It’s an appropriate location.
Messi is so popular that Adidas, which also declined to comment on this story, hasn’t been able to keep up with the demand. A sales associate, who asked to remain anonymous, said the store keeps selling out of pink jerseys and still doesn’t stock any Messi jerseys made for women. There’s also the issue with customs: So many people are getting customs made with Messi’s name that the store has run out of navy blue ink.
It’s an exciting time for Adidas, which was involved, along with Apple, in the transfer negotiations led by Inter Miami’s David Beckham. Apple+, which owns the broadcast rights to the MLS, got access for a documentary as well. Adidas was able to guarantee sponsorship in support of the deal. That must have been a no-brainer for the company, which prominent Bernstein analyst Aneesha Sherman upgraded from “hold” to “buy” last week on the premise that Messi joining MLS is “likely to drive U.S. market share.” LAFC’s Carlos Vela led MLS jersey sales for the 2023 season.
Carlos Vela is a dangerous goalscorer popular in his native Mexico. He is not Lionel Messi.
There is no solid number yet on how many Inter Miami uniforms Messi has sold to date. And demand is not being met. But when all is said and done, it’s more than plausible the number will eclipse the $60 million in Cristiano Ronaldo uniforms Juventus sold when the Portuguese striker moved to Serie A in 2018. Messi may break his own record set at PSG.
Gabriel Davila, a 16-year-old fan, told SPY that he had followed Messi since he was at Barcelona. On a recent afternoon, his devotion had brought him into Manhattan.
“I’m not a fan of the team, but I’m going to watch all the games,” he said, Adidas bag in hand.
