Carlos Tevez has weighed into PSG's tiff with Lionel Messi to furiously slam the French giants for their treatment of the World Cup winner.
Messi was suspended by PSG for making an unauthorised trip to Saudi Arabia, with the attacker also being fined. The situation has all but ended Messi's spell at the Parc des Princes after two years, with the Argentine superstar set to move on this summer.
The bitter dispute has led to protests outside both the club's training ground and Messi's house in Paris by PSG ultras. But Tevez has insisted that it is PSG who are in the wrong by taking disciplinary action against star man Messi.
"Messi makes us all humble. If you told me, being world champion, that I had to go and apologise for going on a trip when I had a day free, I would go back to Rosario and stay there drinking," he told TyC Sports.
"You'd have to apologise to me, but Messi, the truth is, he puts the club first. And I think that, in that case, you have to take your hat off to him. Later we can say thousands of things about a club that did not take care of him from the first moment he arrived, because that's how it is.
"It will be because of the World Cup or something else, but you can't treat a player like that who has led PSG to know him. I played against PSG when I was at United and they were in the middle of the table. The same as City when I signed, we had four showers and we changed in a container."
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Tevez was Messi's team-mate in the Argentina national team for 10 years after the latter made his debut in 2005. He had his own fallout with one of his teams, during his time at Manchester City.
After losing the captaincy to Vincent Kompany, manager Roberto Mancini claimed Tevez had refused to come on during a defeat to Bayern Munich. Tevez insisted it had been a misunderstanding, but was placed on gardening leave.
Five months later, Tevez apologised and returned to the fold, helping them to win the Premier League title. Messi appears to be following that path, releasing a video last week in which he made a grovelling apology.
“First of all, I want to apologise to my teammates and the club. Honestly, I thought we [the squad] were going to have a day off after the game like we did in previous weeks,” Messi said.
“I had this trip [to Saudi Arabia] organised which I had cancelled [once] already; I could not cancel it again. I repeat: I want to say sorry for what I did. I’m waiting to hear what the club want to do with me."
Having missed the win over Troyes last week, he returned to training this week and could be involved in Saturday's Ligue 1 clash with Ajaccio.
