Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Neymar, Sergio Aguero Transfers Targeted by PSG

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi and Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo have been such longstanding rivals that the prospect of them playing in the same team seems a completely fantastical one. But according to reports, Paris Saint-Germain will go all out to land the pair next summer, with Blaugrana star Neymar and Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero as back-up options.

Severac Dominique, who writes for Le Parisien, has revealed that the prospect of the two linking up in the French capital is a possibility. “I'm not inventing anything if I say PSG will again try to sign Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo next season, with Neymar and Aguero as plan B,” he said, per JA Sanchez of SPORT. “Ibrahimovic has to be replaced on the pitch.”

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As we can see here courtesy of WhoScored.com, Messi and Ronaldo have been phenomenally consistent during the past five years:

So it’s no surprise that PSG, one of the most flush clubs in world football, is lusting after the deistic duo. It’s noted by Sanchez that the Ligue 1 side’s chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi is “still dreaming” of acquiring the pair.

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It’s also noted that Jorge Mendes, who is Ronaldo’s agent, has a “good relationship” with the PSG chairman. Sanchez also claims that the French champions have a longstanding interest in Messi, but the forward is “extremely unlikely” to want to move to France.

It’d certainly be intriguing to see these two operating in the same side. In theory, defences across Europe would be powerless to cope with the dynamism and physicality of Ronaldo on the left flank along with Messi’s incision, intricacy and ingenuity floating off the right-hand side. But working on the pitch itself is a different matter entirely.

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After all, both of these players thrive in teams which are geared toward accentuating their various abilities. While the proposition of the two operating together on the same team would be tantalising, how would they cope sharing an unfamiliar large chunk of the attacking burden? 

It’s a question that PSG fans would love to see answered, naturally. But even with the loosening of financial fair play regulations, any pursuit of these two would surely fall out of line with current rules, per Martyn Ziegler of the Independent. In addition, it’s difficult to see either of the two biggest football clubs in the world willing to relinquish control of their very best assets.