Keeping Marco Verratti Is Bigger Than Buying Cristiano Ronaldo for PSG

There was simply no contest for the biggest transfer news—or potential transfer news—of the weekend after Portuguese daily A Bola's Friday cover (in Portuguese) describing Cristiano Ronaldo's bid to leave Real Madrid.

Leaking in the wake of the news of his dispute with the Spanish tax authorities, the story has gripped the football world ever since, whether your perspective is that Ronaldo's expressed wish is an act of brinkmanship to garner a favourable resolution or a genuine possibility.

Given the astronomical costs involved in the move, only a couple of superclubs would ever be mentioned as feasible destinations. With Bayern Munich having ruled themselves out of getting involved, favourites Manchester United and French giants Paris Saint-Germain are pretty much the only remaining options in Europe should Ronaldo finally go to market.

It was even suggested on Sunday's El Transistor on Onda Cero (as reported here by Marca, in Spanish) that his club and international team-mate Pepe, leaving the Bernabeu at the end of his own contract and expecting to join PSG in the coming days, was in the process of persuading Ronaldo to come to the French capital with him.

Hopeful United fans might reflect that it's exactly the sort of stroke they would expect from a man well-established as one of the game's cartoon villains.

Yet new PSG sporting director Antero Henrique has his own rearguard action to fight, and it's one of far greater importance to him than Ronaldo's future plans.

Marco Verratti, the club's 24-year-old midfielder and cornerstone, seems more determined than ever to quit the Parc des Princes, with La Gazzetta dello Sport (h/t El Mundo Deportivo, link in Spanish) reporting at the weekend that the player has gone as far as insisting he won't return to Paris when his current holiday in Ibiza comes to an end. His aim, it appears, is to push through a transfer to Barcelona.

If an official statement is yet to come from PSG, and the briefings are that they are determined to hang on to a player whose deal runs to 2021, the sense is they have a battle on their hands. Verratti's current resolve to go has been unanimously reported in France and Spain, and the man himself was quite happy to pose with a copy of El Mundo Deportivo, which boldly described Barca's interest in him on its front cover, when he bumped into the newspaper's editor in Ibiza.

The Catalan giants' desire to bring Verratti in is no great surprise. The world at large may have forgotten about PSG's Champions League last-16, first-leg demolition of Barca in light of the latter's astonishing second-leg comeback, but few at Camp Nou have. Verratti was sublime (despite only being three-quarters fit) on that Valentine's night in Paris, and so many connected with Barcelona were bewitched.

Francois Mori/Associated Press

In the days leading up to the return match, no less than Xavi described Verratti as the "ideal" signing for Barca in an interview with Le Parisien. "With all the respect owed to PSG," he said, responding to a question on which Paris players he'd like to see at Camp Nou, "Barca don't have a great many needs." Verratti, however, was the exception.

That return match left its mark on PSG, of course, and not least on Verratti. His marriage with the club has always seemed to be one of convenience rather than one founded on true passion, ever since he arrived from Pescara in 2012 having been expected to disembark at Juventus as an eventual Andrea Pirlo replacement.

Paris gave the teenage Verratti pretty much everything he wanted; a starting place in one of Europe's best teams, Champions League football and the opportunity to grow surrounded by top-level professionals, many of them with strong connections to Serie A. He has been stimulated by a winning culture and constantly rewarded for his progress, signing no fewer than four contract extensions since arriving including two last year, in February and August.

That president Nasser Al-Khelaifi—perhaps Verratti's biggest fan—has had to work so hard to keep his man does tell us something, though. On PSG's side, it's that the Italian is simply irreplaceable. His range of passing, short and long, has made him the major piece of the three-man midfield with Thiago Motta and Blaise Matuidi that has seen them through so many triumphs. He dictates the play and, at only 5'4" (1.65m) in socked feet, still has the physicality to break it as well.

Jacques Brinon/Associated Press

Now, a lot has changed at the Parc in the last year. It predates the loss of their Ligue 1 crown, with the departure of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, a leader and (for Verratti personally) a mentor of sorts, changing the equilibrium of the dressing room at least as much as that of PSG's poise on the pitch.

That meant something to Verratti, who had already seen his close friend Ezequiel Lavezzi leave for China. Verratti was often said by Laurent Blanc to be always talking, in the way that one might look to the heavens in response to the latest outburst of an insolent child, but that use of that force of personality has come to the fore in this past season.

With no Zlatan around, Verratti has become the de facto leader in the dressing room. As Ronan Fologoas, who reports on the club for Le Parisien, points out, he was always the first to bring out home truths in PSG's season of stumbles, saying "yes, it's a crisis" after December's defeat at Guingamp and even earlier admitting that he didn't want to play in a team going through "a transitional year."

The fear could be that it won't be just a year, with coach Unai Emery holding on to his job and the likes of Lyon, Marseille and even the Marcelo Bielsa-led Lille aiming to make an impact at the top this year. Far more likely, though, is that the Champions League defeat in Barcelona still sticks in the craw. Verratti "considers that failure as a split in his career," according to Folgoas. It has clearly shaken his faith in the PSG project, and its standards, considerably, with Henrique's arrival perhaps too little, too late to mend it.

The overriding factor is, of course, that it's Barcelona. How often does one get an opportunity like this, he might ask himself, at a moment like this? It is clear that their need for him now, with their midfield at the weakest point it has been at in recent memory, is as great as it probably ever will be. The arrival of Le Petit Hibou (the little owl) would surely be a game-changer, at a time when it feels like the gap to Real Madrid is widening.

It's a moment of truth for Paris Saint-Germain. They are almost uniquely placed in European, and world football, as a club that can resist the prospect of €80 million bids for their star midfielder from one of the world's premier clubs. Since the Qatari takeover, it is rare that things don't happen on their terms.

They will need to show that muscle again. Forget the money. Verratti would be irreplaceable, on and off the pitch. His exit now would represent a far bigger setback to the QSI project than losing the Ligue 1 title, and it's a gap that even Ronaldo couldn't fill.

The next few weeks will tell us just how much PSG's hard-won status, and hope for the future, can hold up.