12 months on from his Liverpool departure, Georginio Wijnaldum must have some regrets on how things have panned out for his career. A regular feature in Jürgen Klopp’s heavy metal Reds side that ended Liverpool’s 30-year wait for a Premier League title and added a sixth Champions League trophy to their laden cabinet, the Dutch midfielder opted for a move to Paris Saint-Germain last summer.
With his contract running thin and having entered his 30s, Liverpool weren’t willing to meet Wijnaldum’s hefty wage demands and he was allowed to leave the club for free after five years of service in Merseyside — being snapped up by PSG as Mauricio Pochettino brought in a wealth of free agents last summer, including Lionel Messi, Sergio Ramos and Gianluigi Donnarumma.
But Wijnaldum arguably didn’t play as big of a role as he perhaps would have expected when he put pen-to-paper on a move to the Parc des Princes, making just 18 starts in Ligue 1 as PSG regained their title from Lille — who were the shock winners of the French top flight in the 2020/21 season.
It was only a couple of months into the season before the cracks first started appearing in Wijnaldum’s move to Paris, with the Dutchman admitting he was ‘not completely happy’ in the city of light, and while minutes did become somewhat more regular in the second half of the season, he still wasn’t happy and it now appears that the 31-year-old midfielder’s time at the club is already up.
Wijnaldum has been cast aside by new boss Christophe Galtier, being left at home as PSG headed off on a pre-season tour of Japan, and it now looks increasingly likely that the midfielder will be sold by the French giants this summer — with PSG reportedly willing to accept offers of as low as £17m for the Netherlands international.
Of course, it would be a win-win situation for all parties if a deal can be made in this window. If PSG can move him on for £17m, then it is a good bit of profit for the club just 12 months after signing him for free, while the World Cup in Qatar in November will be on Wijnaldum’s radar and he needs to be playing more often if he wants to cement a regular place in Louis van Gaal’s side.
However, it is unlikely that he is going to get a move to another European powerhouse at this stage of his career. A move back to Merseyside is one of the possible destinations being tipped, but it’s Everton who are interested in his signature — not former club Liverpool, one of the favourites in the Premier League outright betting market.
There’s no doubt that Wijnaldum will have regrets about how things turned out at PSG, especially as it is something he admits he was ‘really looking forward to’. He has made that very clear in the press numerous times over the last year. But he has vowed to learn from this move and while he might not get another big opportunity like it in his career, he has to move on now and rebuild his reputation somewhere else.