The impact of Messi on Ligue 1 and France

Messi is the current Ballon d'Or holder, and in his prime. Just had one of the best major NT-tournament performances, ever. What has that got to do with Kaka's of the world?

Messi in his prime? Are you off your meds again, Jiops?

You're mixing peak with prime. He's not in his peak anymore, but easily still in his prime.

sportsczy wrote:Ligue 1 is shown and extremely popular in Africa.  In fact, I’d wager it’s the most followed league and PSG is on top.  A lot of African players in Ligue 1.  That’s not the issue there.  All the games are pirated.   So the media rights aren’t worth much.

South America and Asia are the big targets.

No man thats just wrong. EPL is by far the most popular league in Africa. Most popular clubs are Man Utd/Chelsea/Arsenal/Pool.

RealGunner wrote:Neymar going to PSG was bigger honestly because he is in the prime of his career and made a bold move to leave barcelona for a lesser league.

Messi moving to PSG is just because they are the only team that can pay him what he wants and it's more of a retirement move. He is 34 and well on a decline.

pls stop... there's still a major difference between on-decline Messi and prime Neymar

sportsczy wrote:Ligue 1 is shown and extremely popular in Africa.  In fact, I’d wager it’s the most followed league and PSG is on top. A lot of African players in Ligue 1.  That’s not the issue there.  All the games are pirated.   So the media rights aren’t worth much.

South America and Asia are the big targets.

well you'd wager wrong.
EPL is the most followed league in Africa, and Ligue 1 doesn't even come close pls.

I agree insofar as that Messi will boost Ligue Un viewership. But i feel like your overall prediction that he will completely take football in France to the next level is exaggeration.

Harmonica wrote:You're mixing peak with prime. He's not in his peak anymore, but easily still in his prime.

Thats just semantics isnt it. His prime was when he could decide games on his own which isnt the case anymore.

He runs less and is less decisive than ever which means he can't be in his prime, no? I believe so

So many psg fans is waiting for him

Based on my own personal experience I’ve been to 4/5 North African countries and I’ve never met someone who supports a Ligue 1 team or seen someone wear a jersey from there unless it was a kid wearing a PSG jersey.

From what I could tell the most popular leagues there are still Serie A, La Liga and PL. The old gen likes Serie A because they grew up watching teams from there win. The new gen likes Madrid and Barca. I’m sure the next time I get a chance to go there, they’ll move on to PL clubs because of Mahrez and Salah. Foreign fans tend to support club teams who win or teams who have one of their national players not necessarily teams from where they got colonized (unless that’s the only league airing there). Your average Algerian or Moroccan might have France as their second favourite national team, but there’s no way I would believe the locals there are bigger fans of Marseille than Madrid.

In the last decade fans over there have been using AlJazeera sports and then BEIN sports to watch football and they were airing most of the major leagues. So I have a hard time believing Ligue 1 is most viewed in those regions especially with the new generations. Maybe I could believe if it was TV viewership stats pre early 2000s, but I still think Serie A would’ve been higher at the time. Nowadays, I feel it would be La Liga, but I haven’t confirmed that statistically.

If you’re referring to central and southern Africa it seems like the Premier League is most followed there too. United has a massive fanbase in those areas.

Myesyats wrote:

Harmonica wrote:You're mixing peak with prime. He's not in his peak anymore, but easily still in his prime.

Thats just semantics isnt it. His prime was when he could decide games on his own which isnt the case anymore.

He runs less and is less decisive than ever which means he can't be in his prime, no? I believe so

Well it isn't, you should go and read about the terms.

Messi decided plenty of games by himself last season, and was probably as decisive as ever. The fact that Barcelona was on huge decline doesn't mean Messi was on decline, as was proved in the Copa.

El Gunner wrote:

sportsczy wrote:Ligue 1 is shown and extremely popular in Africa.  In fact, I’d wager it’s the most followed league and PSG is on top.  A lot of African players in Ligue 1.  That’s not the issue there.  All the games are pirated.   So the media rights aren’t worth much.

South America and Asia are the big targets.

well you'd wager wrong.
EPL is the most followed league in Africa, and Ligue 1 doesn't even come close pls.

I agree insofar as that Messi will boost Ligue Un viewership. But i feel like your overall prediction that he will completely take football in France to the next level is exaggeration.

Yeah I feel maybe it would've been the case in the mid 2000s and before especially in places like Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Gabon etc. Nowadays it's definitely the PL.

Whoh hold on there... there are a LOT of Ligue 1 fans in the Maghreb.. dude, you just mentioned marseille which is where a LOT of NA immigrants live. That’s one of the most followed teams along with PSG down here.

A lot of our players play in ligue 1 and it’s on all the main channels including TF1, we even follow ligue 2 lol, I’m gonna have to strongly disagree based on personal experience

National team comes first and many of our players go through the French system. There is always interest in ligue 1/2, people were literally sporting Le Havre jerseys with mendy and mahrez’s name back before 2014

FennecFox7 wrote:Whoh hold on there... there are a LOT of Ligue 1 fans in the Maghreb.. dude, you just mentioned marseille which is where a LOT of NA immigrants live. That’s one of the most followed teams along with PSG down here.

A lot of our players play in ligue 1 and it’s on all the main channels including TF1, we even follow ligue 2 lol, I’m gonna have to strongly disagree based on personal experience

National team comes first and many of our players go through the French system. There is always interest in ligue 1/2, people were literally sporting Le Havre jerseys with mendy and mahrez’s name back before 2014

But that has nothing whatsoever to do with Messi joining PSG and the league popularity rising due to that

of course there's already a lot of support, interest, and connection to Ligue 1 in northern Africa

yea but North Africa is like 15% of Africa
and how many French league players come from Egypt and Sudan?

Casciavit wrote:Based on my own personal experience I’ve been to 4/5 North African countries and I’ve never met someone who supports a Ligue 1 team or seen someone wear a jersey from there unless it was a kid wearing a PSG jersey.

From what I could tell the most popular leagues there are still Serie A, La Liga and PL. The old gen likes Serie A because they grew up watching teams from there win. The new gen likes Madrid and Barca. I’m sure the next time I get a chance to go there, they’ll move on to PL clubs because of Mahrez and Salah. Foreign fans tend to support club teams who win or teams who have one of their national players not necessarily teams from where they got colonized (unless that’s the only league airing there). Your average Algerian or Moroccan might have France as their second favourite national team, but there’s no way I would believe the locals there are bigger fans of Marseille than Madrid.

In the last decade fans over there have been using AlJazeera sports and then BEIN sports to watch football and they were airing most of the major leagues. So I have a hard time believing Ligue 1 is most viewed in those regions especially with the new generations. Maybe I could believe if it was TV viewership stats pre early 2000s, but I still think Serie A would’ve been higher at the time. Nowadays, I feel it would be La Liga, but I haven’t confirmed that statistically.

If you’re referring to central and southern Africa it seems like the Premier League is most followed there too. United has a massive fanbase in those areas.

In South Africa, EPL is the primary league people support, next is La Liga (mostly because of Madrid and Barca), then Serie A (though not really since the games aren't really broadcasted much). I don't think I've ever seen a Ligue Un game even mentioned in any of our broadcasting. In the 90s, we only had EPL, and you had to read about other leagues in the newspaper. United, Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and probably City in the last few years are the main teams that feature, with Madrid and Barca mixed in.

^the same goes for the rest of Southern Africa. And i would imagine central and west Africa too judging from my online experience

You would assume that people in Francophone sub saharan Africa would follow Ligue 1 to some sizeable degree wouldn't you

Cote D'Ivoire etc

still, nothing of that has to do with Messi. Rather it shows why it wouldn't have much of an impact

QSG should just buy more players and start loaning them to L1 teams, in order to facilitate greater competition.

FennecFox7 wrote:Whoh hold on there... there are a LOT of Ligue 1 fans in the Maghreb.. dude, you just mentioned marseille which is where a LOT of NA immigrants live. That’s one of the most followed teams along with PSG down here.

A lot of our players play in ligue 1 and it’s on all the main channels including TF1, we even follow ligue 2 lol, I’m gonna have to strongly disagree based on personal experience

National team comes first and many of our players go through the French system. There is always interest in ligue 1/2, people were literally sporting Le Havre jerseys with mendy and mahrez’s name back before 2014

I don't disagree with what you're saying. All I'm saying is that when I went to Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt I didn't see see that big of a Ligue 1 fanbase.

The people I met there were mostly fans of the big international teams. The kids wore the popular jerseys or the local jerseys. When I discussed football with the older folks I don't recall any being a fan of Ligue 1 team.

That's just my experience though. I'm sure what you're saying is correct. Especially for the French speaking Maghreb region. A lot of the talents there end up playing in France so the local population probably does follow the league to some degree.

You're Algerian so my question is do you think Ligue 1 is the most watched league there? That's sort of what Sports was wagering. Especially now in 2021? I don't know. I'd assume the local population are more likely to be fans of Madrid before a random Ligue 1 team especially the younger kids. That was the point I was going with when it came to Marseille.

You’re definitely right to some degree. The thing is we tend to follow all of our up and coming players, and they all tend to start in France. Yes most of us follow the big clubs but in ligue 1 we do have a ton of guys who play or can potentially be on the NT and the hype gets even crazier when a hometown boy like Boudaoui makes it to Nice for example. Just wanted to point out there is a lot of fans, and it’s because of the similarities in language and the fact a lot of our guys play there, but yes a lot of them support Barca or Madrid, or Man U in my experience

Surely messi playing for a max of 2 years in ligue 1 will have no major long term impact on l1.

It will boost psg attendances and viewership for a while. Mayyyybe some will trickle to the rest , but a very minor amount.

But commercial deals take years and unless they're being renewed right this second this won't impact then. And by the time they are renewed messi probably won't be around any more, or it would be assumed he's leaving soon.

There's also the question of to what extent QSG is interested in remaining an owner in the game after Qatar 2022. If not, there are plenty teams that will show the self-destruction that comes after a benefactor owner loses interest.

https://twitter.com/LoGioPSG/status/1424707133002637312

https://twitter.com/ReshadRahman_/status/1424707141349384194?s=19

Yep, I'm sure Messi will be arriving walking with a fake beard and sunglasses wearing a Barca shirt

wtf are these links

Lmfaooo PSG fans doing the most.

At this point in time Im just really hopeful we do get to see the attacking trio of Mbappe/Neymar/Messi - the new best in history - MSN 2.0 = MMN or MNM I think it would go along way for me personally to forget the sad state of things lol....

PSG is gonna keep Mbappe right? Whats these rumours they gonna have to let Mbappe goto Real? Arent Real broke?

I think I'd chose MSN over MNM but I'll have to actually see MNM play first. MSN are great friends off the field nd I think that helped there connection on the field more. Not sure what mbappe relationship with Neymars like, but prime Suarez>Mbappe for the time being