A Marseille player at the heart of the brand new QSI project? The idea could have become a reality. In 2011, shortly after taking charge of the sporting sector at PSG, Leonardo did attempt to recruit… Samir Nasri. The former OM player himself revealed the anecdote a few weeks ago, and the Brazilian executive has just confirmed it on After Foot on RMC.
Samir Nasri almost joined Paris in 2011, Leonardo confirms. PSG wanted to recruit the Marseille player at the beginning of the Qatari era. They needed a name, a star. At the time, Nasri was playing for Arsenal and was in talks with Inter Milan, then managed by Leonardo. There was a good rapport between the two men, until the Brazilian called the player: “Stop talking to Inter,” he told him, before revealing that he was going to become the director of football at PSG and wanted to attract him there.
But Nasri immediately declined: “I told him: No Leo, that’s not possible. Even Arsène Wenger was telling me: Go to PSG! But no, I couldn’t do that.”
It was impossible for him to consider a direct move from Marseille to Paris. “Samir Nasri, oh yes that’s right, I called him,” confirmed the former Parisian sporting director.
Pastore, the first symbol of PSG QSI… but not the first choice
Faced with the Marseille player’s refusal, Leonardo then turned to Javier Pastore, the first major signing of the QSI era. “Pastore, everyone wanted him. He was elegant, talented, and Paris has a bit of that. In the early years, he was incredible,” the executive recalled.
A chapter in the history of the new PSG that could have been very different… with a former Marseille player as the headliner. Perhaps it was a bit daring after all…
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