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Lionel Messi’s transfer to French giants Paris Saint-Germain will likely go down as one of the most monumental and controversial moments in football history.
The Argentinian legend, regarded by many as one of if not the greatest footballer ever, officially completed his move to the French capital on Tuesday, August 10th, 2021. This brought to an end his tenure at Barcelona, a team he had been a part of since he was just 13 and played for the first team since October 2004.
Now 34, Messi scored more than 670 goals for the Spanish team, becoming their all-time leading scorer and the all-time leading scorer in the history of La Liga. Those are just two of the records he broke during his glittering time in Catalonia which resulted as well as the staggering list of team and individual honours he picked up on the way.
However, due to financial problems at Barcelona and restrictions imposed by La Liga, it was announced on 5th August that Messi would be leaving the club as a free agent. Three days later in a tearful press conference, he confirmed to the world that his time at Barcelona was over. An incredible career and one man’s personal connection to a club shattered by the modern state of football.
This left Messi with few options as to where he could continue his career as only a few clubs could possibly afford to employ him. It was PSG who struck first and sealed possibly the most historic free transfer in history, marking an incredible rise for the French side who were only formed on 12th August 1970.
This relatively young club has had a mixed history but, since they were purchased by Qatar Sports Investments in 2011, have had a meteoric rise to the top of the European game, winning a plethora of domestic titles in the process and signing many of the world’s best players.
The acquisition of Messi is possibly the cherry on top of the cake for the Parisiens and depending on how you look at the situation is either a fantastically quick rags to riches story or a problematic indictment of the amount of money currently being invested into football.
Regardless, the fact that a club that is younger than Lionel Messi’s dad has just signed the best player on the planet is something quite staggering. Here are 10 other things that are surprisingly older than PSG.
The entire cast of Friends
We’ll start with a real doozy that will get your head in a spin. As pointed out by @BeardedGenius on Twitter. the entire main cast of Friends – that’s Jennifer Aniston, David Schwimmer, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matthew Perry and Matt LeBlanc – are all older than PSG. All six were born between July 1963 and August 1969 respectively.
Spencer Platt/Getty Images
Born on April 26th, 1970 the former Slovenian supermodel and first lady of the United States of America, Melania Trump predates PSG’s existence by 3 months and 17 days. Other celebrities that were born before PSG include Naomi Campbell, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Jay-Z, Paul Rudd, Cate Blanchett, Gwen Stefani and Jennifer Lopez.
Cash machines
Cash machines, or ATMs (Automated teller machines) as they are better known around the world, were first introduced to the world on 27th June 1967 in the not-so-glamourous location of a Barclays Bank branch in Enfield, north London. Although the primitive machine did allow people to withdraw cash regardless of the bank’s business hours, it only allowed customers to withdraw £10 at a time.
AstroTurf
The fake turf, which was the scourge of school children’s knees, was patented in 1965 and first came to prominence in 1966 when it was installed at the Astrodome stadium in Houston, Texas as a substitute for real grass. The tough material might have looked like the real deal but one stumble on that surface and you’d have a graze on knees or elbows for weeks.
The Beatles’ last ever concert
On January 30th, 1969 performed what would become their final ever appearance as band together, when they played a short setlist of songs on top of Apple Corps HG in central London. Numerous onlookers, most of whom were either passing by or on the lunch breaks, saw the legendary band play nine takes of five different songs before the impromptu gig was shut down by police.
The Stonewall Riots
The Stonewall Riots, which happened started on June 28th 1969 in New York’s Greenwich Village, was one of the most significant moments in the history of LGBTQ+ rights and a landmark moment for the community’s liberation. After police became violent during a raid on a gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, tensions erupted as gay residents fought back. Within weeks, several activist groups and newspapers were set up in the US to help promote gay rights and exactly a year later the first-ever gay Pride marches took place in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco.
A group of gay rights activists take part in the annual Pride Parade to commemorate the 11th anniversary of the Stonewall riots in a New York City, US, June 1980Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images
Tonga
The small Pacific island of Tonga, which had previously been under British rule since May 18th, 1900 became an independent nation on June 4th, 1970. It has a population of just over 104,000 people and, although it hasn’t produced many footballers of note, it is responsible for the oily flag bearer Pita Taufatofua, who has now appeared at three Olympic games.
The first-ever message sent on the internet
Although January 1st, 1983 is considered to be the first official birthday of the internet , t was actually back on October 29th, 1969 that the first-ever message sent to two computers occurred. The message, which was sent from UCLA, simply read ‘LO.’ It was supposed to read ‘low and behold’ but the entire system crashed after just two letters.
Walmart
In 1945, Sam Walton set up a small Five and Dime store in Bentonville, Arkansas. By October 31st, 1969 Walmart Inc was incorporated as an official company. Today it is the world’s largest company by revenue and has a net worth of $548.743 billion, employs more than 2.2 million people and has operations in Canada, UK, Central America, South America, and China
The Women’s World Cup
The first-ever Women’s Football World Cup took place in July 1970, just a month before PSG were formed. The tournament took place in Italy with Denmark being crowned the champions. It was followed a year later by another World Cup, this time in Mexico. However, the tournament wasn’t officially recognised until 1991 when it received the endorsement of FIFA to become the FIFA Women’s World Cup.
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