The Argentine superstar's move to sign with Paris Saint Germain came as a surprise to many as it was very much out of the Blues. Lionel Messi had already told his Argentine teammates that he was signing a new deal with the Catalan giants before his surprise exit from Barcelona last summer. Barcelona announced last year in August that they were unable to offer their legend a contract extension as they were facing financial troubles and that marked the end of the Messi 17-year reign at the Camp Nou. PSG then jumped into the first opportunity to bring in the super striker on a free transfer. Several PSG players, including Paredes, were pictured with Messi in Ibiza before his departure from Barca was confirmed, which sent rumors of a potential move to Parc des Princes into overdrive.

Paredes has revealed how they tried to convince Messi to join them at Parc de Princess but the superstar had his heart at Camp Nou at first. He said that Messi had told them that he was even set to travel to the Catalonia city of Barcelona to sign a new contract with the Catalan giants on the night that the two together with other PSG and Argentine teammates had met in Ibiza. Then things took a dramatic turn when the same night news reached them that in fact, Messi was going to join them at PSG. In Paredes own words; "I don't know what happened on that trip to Barcelona, ​​because the very night he was going to sign the contract, he told us he was coming here." Paredes further adds that they found it hard to believe Messi at first but it became clearer to them that truly the superstar would be playing in their squad at the break of dawn. 
 

Messi has been struggling to live up to the heavy expectations during his first season at PSG and this has not gone down well with some people as he even was booed by his own PSG fans alongside his teammate Neymar. Lionel has only scored nine goals so far in his 32 appearances for the club. He has also provided a record of 13 assists to help the capital city club be crowned the Ligue1 champions but that did not stop the boos from coming his way. Paredes claims that he was disgusted by the PSG fans' reaction towards Messi, whom he says he does not deserve the kind of criticism he has been receiving in the past few months. The superstar's Argentine teammate says that Leo has done so much to help the club but the truth is only presented in a boring way.