Romelu Lukaku is back at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea completed the signing of the 28-year-old Belgian striker from Inter Milan on Thursday, further bolstering their already loaded attack.

The Blues reportedly paid a club-record €115 million to re-sign a player who was on their books from 2011-14. Lukaku left the west London outfit after only 10 Premier League appearances and a loan spell at West Bromwich Albion.

The mammoth fee eclipses the initial £72 million Chelsea splashed last summer to recruit Kai Havertz from Bayer Leverkusen.

“I’m happy and blessed to be back at this wonderful club,” Lukaku said after inking a five-year contract. “It’s been a long journey for me: I came here as a kid who had a lot to learn, now I’m coming back with a lot of experience and more mature.

“The relationship I have with this club means so much to me, as you know. I have supported Chelsea as a kid and now to be back and try to help them win more titles is an amazing feeling.”

Lukaku is coming off a spectacular – and brief – stint in Serie A. He scored 47 league goals in two dominant campaigns with the Nerazzurri, leading them to their first Scudetto in over a decade last season.

Prior to his time in Italy, he had prolific tenures at Manchester United and Everton.

Lukaku initially stated that he wanted to remain with Inter but changed his tune earlier this month and reportedly asked the club’s directors to sanction a return to Chelsea. Negotiations developed quickly from there. Chelsea took advantage of the Italian club’s crippling financial situation; Inter were forced to sell Achraf Hakimi to Paris Saint-Germain in July after having already watched manager Antonio Conte depart, too.

The allure of working with Thomas Tuchel also reportedly helped sway Lukaku.

The Belgian superstar figures to slot directly into the German tactician’s starting lineup, assuming the No. 9 role and allowing Timo Werner to move into a more comfortable position playing to the left of a central striker and using his blistering pace to exploit spaces down the wing.

Having forged an impressive partnership with Lautaro Martinez at the San Siro, Tuchel will be hoping Lukaku strikes up a similar accord with Werner.

Chelsea, the reigning Champions League winners, will look to capture their first Premier League title since 2017.

It really happened. Lionel Messi, fresh off an emotional departure from Barcelona, joined Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday, inking an initial two-year contract with the nouveau-rich club. PSG are clear winners in all this, of course. Meanwhile, Barcelona, stuck in a financial crater of their own making, are obvious losers. But there are more dominoes in the wake of a signing that alters European football’s landscape. Below, we examine the other winners and losers from Messi’s move to the French capital.

Loser: Joan Laporta

The president who let Messi leave. Laporta will never be able to shake that.

You could certainly argue that Josep Maria Bartomeu and, to a lesser extent, Sandro Rosell are more culpable here; Laporta, in fairness, inherited a financial disaster that his predecessors largely created. But the current president will never escape the fact that Messi departed on his watch. Worse yet, Laporta made retaining the once wantaway superstar the primary selling point of his presidential candidacy. Keeping Messi was to be the crowning achievement of his second tenure, and he failed to deliver.

It’s irrelevant, really, whether he misjudged the economic crisis at the Camp Nou or contributed to it by making several signings this summer. It was his job to keep Messi, and instead, he’s now in Paris.

Winners: Real Madrid

In more ways than one.

The most obvious victory also applies to Atletico Madrid and every single defender in La Liga: None of them have to worry about concocting a scheme to try to shackle the most dominant attacking force the sport has ever seen. That’s certainly cause for celebration.

In the long term, Messi’s departure could have direct implications on Real Madrid in the transfer market, too. Los Blancos have long been linked with PSG superstar Kylian Mbappe, to the point where many have speculated that his move to the Spanish capital is a matter of when, not if. PSG may have unlimited funds, but even for the Qatari-backed club, keeping Mbappe without running amok of Financial Fair Play (FFP) shouldn’t be possible, even if FFP is largely a charade. After you’ve already committed tons of money to various free agents, spent €60 million on Achraf Hakimi, recently re-signed Neymar in a deal that reportedly pays the Brazilian €31 million per season, and added the most expensive player in the world on top of an already hefty wage bill, conventional wisdom suggests some kind of sacrifice has to be made.

Mbappe is slated to become a free agent next summer, and if his departure is the cost of Messi’s arrival, Real Madrid will be eternally grateful. PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi remains convinced Mbappe will stay put, but that’s far from a guarantee.

Loser: Parity

It was viewed as a victory for fans and football when the infamous Super League plot imploded amid an avalanche of backlash. What is sport without open competition, after all? And while that remains wholly true, we’re now getting a look at the alternative, and it’s … not much better?

The non-Super League world looks a whole lot like a Super League right now, except this one is comprised of only a few oligarchs and nation states masquerading as football clubs.

The gulf between the sport’s rich and poor has never been greater. State-backed clubs like PSG and Manchester City, with their unfathomable wealth, have changed the conversation, spending wildly simply because they can. When it became clear that Messi was leaving Barcelona, there were basically two, maybe three, realistic destinations. The greatest player of his generation – and perhaps of all time – didn’t have a choice. Not really. No matter how you slice it, that’s not good for the sport.

Money – especially from shadowy sources – has always been present in football. A collection of preeminent clubs have long enjoyed more wealth than others, scooping up talent and reaping the competitive advantages that go along with a loftier economic status. That isn’t new.

But this feels different, especially amid the backdrop of a pandemic that torpedoed the finances of so many proverbial heavyweights. The degree to which teams like PSG, City, and even Chelsea can blow everyone else out of the water is staggering. The top, at least, always had some semblance of parity, but we’ve surely hit another threshold now.

The Super League architects were misguided – and obviously selfish – in crafting their plan to “save” the sport. But for all the ridicule, they were right about the unsustainable direction football was, and is, heading. PSG’s ability to sign Messi, having already spent a fortune on wages for other players this summer, only highlights that truth.

Winner … sort of: Javier Tebas

Well, Tebas certainly stuck to his guns. The La Liga president asserted all along that he wouldn’t shift the goalposts and make any exceptions in order for Barcelona to register Messi’s contract. The rules are the rules, after all, even for the biggest star. True to his word, Tebas didn’t budge, and now Messi’s gone.

That’s a win in the sense that the outspoken Tebas, an extremely headstrong executive, got the best of Laporta after the pair clashed over the aforementioned Super League; Barcelona, remember, are one of the three teams still in favor of the breakaway competition that Tebas branded a “joke.”

A Pyrrhic victory, perhaps, as Tebas’ resolve has helped contribute to the loss of a megastar who drives ticket sales and helps add zeros to La Liga’s TV contracts.

Loser: Sergio Aguero

Playing with Messi, one of his oldest and dearest friends, wasn’t the sole reason Aguero signed with Barcelona as a free agent this summer, but that was clearly a huge selling point for the Argentine striker.

So much for that.

At least Aguero, who will miss the first 10 weeks of the season with an injury, has plenty of time to draw up celebratory dances with Antoine Griezmann now.

Winner: YouTube highlight reels

As we’ve already outlined, Messi’s move has all but crystalized a dangerous paradigm shift in football. But, from a strictly on-pitch perspective, there’s simply no denying that the prospect of the all-conquering 34-year-old linking up with Neymar and Mbappe is wildly exciting.

Messi and Neymar are masterful playmakers, progressing the ball and slicing up opposing backlines with their elite – and unfair – combination of dribbling and passing ability. It takes an entire defensive plan to stop one of them, never mind trying to nullify both.

And then, even if by some miracle you’re able to slow down the South American dynamos on the same day, there’s the small matter of Mbappe, the most explosive player in the world in open space. Viewers of Barcelona have long lamented the club’s inability to find someone who can run behind the defense, which in turn forces the opposition to sit deeper, thus creating more room for Messi to operate in attacking midfield areas.

Now he has Mbappe. All you can do is laugh. Or cry, if you’re another Champions League contender.

Playing all three of them together has some obvious defensive issues that Mauricio Pochettino will need to creatively solve – midfielders Idrissa Gueye, Marco Verratti, and Gini Wijnaldum will be asked to cover absurd amounts of space, for starters – but frankly, that’s a secondary concern. There really is no limit to what the three superlative stars can do in attack.

Good luck, everyone else.

Loser: Romanticism

For anyone who hoped Messi would make a fairytale return to Newell’s Old Boys after leaving Barcelona, his unveiling in Paris was the latest reminder that football is a business with little place for romance.

That’s not an indictment on Messi, either. He should absolutely seek out the best financial deal possible, especially since this is probably the last enormous contract of his career. He’s certainly earned the right to be paid handsomely; the suggestion that he should’ve played for free to stay at Barcelona was ludicrous.

Still, the cold reality of Messi at PSG is yet another indication that the most important color in football is green.

Winner: Argentina

Messi hasn’t played fewer than 2,500 league minutes in a season since the 2007-08 campaign. For someone who is constantly on the ball, running at defenders, and trying to avoid having his ankles scythed, the little Argentine has been extremely durable throughout his career.

That takes a toll, though. Even on a magician.

Yes, his game has changed over the years, and he’s become more adept at picking his spots and saving himself for decisive bursts, but the human body can only accept so much wear and tear at 34 years old. Whereas Barcelona have been entirely dependent on Messi to do everything for so long – since Neymar left, essentially – PSG and Pochettino will have the luxury of resting the veteran forward more frequently, keeping him fresh in anticipation of what should be another deep Champions League run.

That will be music to the ears of Argentina manager Lionel Scaloni ahead of the 2022 World Cup, which will almost definitely be Messi’s final – and perhaps best – chance to hoist the only accolade missing from his collection.

Loser: ‘MSN’

The most dominant attacking trio football has ever seen? That crown may be on the verge of changing hands. Pour one out for Luis Suarez.

And just like that, the balance of power in world football shifted to Paris.

Lionel Messi was officially unveiled Tuesday by Paris Saint-Germain, signing as a free agent after a whirlwind week in which the Argentine megastar ended his superlative 21-year affiliation with Barcelona.

Messi inked a two-year contract with the Ligue 1 outfit. The deal includes an option for a third season.

The 34-year-old was in tears Sunday as he bid farewell to the only club he’s ever known as a professional. The mood was much more jovial Tuesday, though, as he posed with the No. 30 PSG kit – a sight, and a shirt number, that will take some getting used to.

Prior to his unveiling, a smiling Messi greeted hundreds of joyous PSG supporters who gathered to welcome the star forward and his family to the French capital after his flight from Spain.

He will link up with former Barcelona teammate – and close friend – Neymar and French superstar Kylian Mbappe at the Parc des Princes, forming what could be the most dominant attacking triumvirate in football history.

Messi was offered the No. 10 shirt by Neymar, ESPN reports, but turned it down, opting instead to return to the number he wore in his debut season with Barcelona.

“I am excited to begin a new chapter of my career at Paris Saint-Germain,” the six-time Ballon d’Or winner said.

“Everything about the club matches my football ambitions. I know how talented the squad and the coaching staff are here. I am determined to help build something special for the club and the fans, and I am looking forward to stepping out onto the pitch at the Parc des Princes.”

Messi was a free agent after his contract with Barcelona expired on June 30. He was expected to remain with the Catalan club after agreeing to reduce his salary and sign a new deal, but Barca announced last week they could not register the contract with La Liga due to financial constraints.

He had been with the club since 2000, scoring 672 goals in 778 appearances and lifting 34 trophies.

The decorated attacker said Sunday that he wanted to stay at the Camp Nou, but when it became clear that was no longer possible, PSG moved quickly to secure arguably the most coveted signature in the sport.

“I am delighted that Lionel Messi has chosen to join Paris Saint-Germain and we are proud to welcome him and his family to Paris,” club chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi said. “He has made no secret of his desire to continue competing at the very highest level and winning trophies, and naturally our ambition as a club is to do the same. The addition of Leo to our world class squad continues a very strategic and successful transfer window for the club.”

PSG, desperate to hoist the Champions League trophy after years of heavy transfer expenditure, already added Gianluigi Donnarumma, Sergio Ramos, Georginio Wijnaldum, and Achraf Hakimi to the squad this summer prior to the stunning acquisition of Messi.

It’s the end of an era at Barcelona.

After over two decades with the club, a record 672 goals, 34 trophies, and six Ballon d’Or awards, Lionel Messi is heading off. And it all went down during a whirlwind few hours on Thursday, as rumblings of his departure quickly morphed into a stunning – and surprisingly curt – announcement from the club, biding Messi a once inconceivable farewell.

Barcelona claim they did everything possible to retain the man widely regarded as the greatest footballer alive, and the team wasn’t shy about blaming La Liga for the Argentine icon’s exit, and not its own mismanagement.

Messi’s future was already taking shape before anyone could fully digest the news. Paris Saint-Germain is flush with cash, and they’re reportedly making inroads on a deal to bring the 34-year-old to the French capital on a free transfer.

How did it come to this? And how the heck can PSG, already loaded with expensive star power, afford Messi without running up against Financial Fair Play regulations?

Let’s attempt to answer those questions and more.

Wait, didn’t we go through all this last year?

Almost exactly a year ago!

Messi, who introduced “burofax” into the global lexicon, famously informed Barcelona last August that he was fed up with the state of the club, saying he intended to leave immediately. So, no, the prospect of Messi departing isn’t exactly novel.

But, of course, that saga ended with Barcelona managing to satiate their legendary forward. The election of Joan Laporta as president and the emergence of some young talent convinced the megastar to return for one more season, putting off any decision about his future until this summer.

Barcelona fans breathed an enormous sigh of relief. They would later celebrate when it was reported last month that Messi had agreed to a five-year contract extension set to reduce his gargantuan salary by 50% to ensure Barca could afford to retain his invaluable services.

That was the state of play until Thursday. In a way then, his bombshell departure did come out of nowhere.

Why didn’t he sign the new contract?

As Barcelona noted in their three-paragraph statement confirming Messi is leaving, they couldn’t afford to register the deal with La Liga. By all accounts, the agreement was reached between the two parties. Though some Spanish outlets claim an angered Messi and his father pulled the plug after Laporta tried to change the terms of the agreement at the last minute, the Catalan outfit maintains that isn’t accurate.

“Despite FC Barcelona and Lionel Messi having reached an agreement and the clear intention of both parties to sign a new contract today, this cannot happen because of financial and structural obstacles (Spanish Liga regulations),” the La Liga side said.

“As a result of this situation, Messi shall not be staying on at FC Barcelona,” the club added. “Both parties deeply regret that the wishes of the player and the club will ultimately not be fulfilled.”

La Liga imposes a salary cap on its clubs, and president Javier Tebas has maintained throughout the process that Barcelona wouldn’t be given any special treatment. The salary limit for the 2020-21 season was set at €382.7 million. Barca, incredibly, maintained the largest wage bill in Spain before the COVID-19 pandemic, coming in at a whopping €671 million.

Massive cuts needed to be made, but Barca have thus far been unable to sell anyone of note, with Antoine Griezmann – now the team’s highest earner without Messi – still on the books, along with a handful of others who are nearly impossible to move because of their significant salaries. Finding suitors that could digest those wages would be difficult during the best of times. It’s especially challenging now when almost every team is hurting financially amid the pandemic.

Instead of making the required sales and slashing the club’s wage bill, Barcelona compounded their problem, most notably adding Sergio Aguero and Memphis Depay on free transfers. Perhaps that was in anticipation of Messi leaving and they knew all along. But on the surface, it certainly seems to have adversely affected the situation.

Did Barcelona not see the salary-cap issue coming?

Foresight hasn’t exactly been a strength of the Blaugrana’s brass in recent years. It’s impossible to overstate just how badly you have to mismanage FC Barcelona, a money-printing machine, for the club to be saddled with €1.173 billion of debt and unable to figure how to retain the services of the GOAT.

Laporta said Friday that Messi is “not happy” with the outcome while blasting La Liga – and, by extension, Tebas – for creating the obstacles that have, in his eyes, robbed the league of its best and most marketable superstar.

Laporta was also quick to point out that the financial situation he inherited upon being elected as club president for a second time was far worse than he initially realized. Naturally.

Shouldn’t La Liga make an exception here?

The club was given some leeway, mainly due to the impact of COVID-19 on every team’s finances. But Tebas was never going to back down, particularly after the Super League debacle, which he very publicly denounced. Barcelona, of course, remain in favor of the breakaway competition. The divide between the two parties is very clear.

Obviously, keeping Messi in Spain would be in the best interest of everyone – Barcelona, the league, and all the other clubs benefit massively from his presence. But this looks, at least in part, like a power struggle between Laporta and Tebas. The latter wasn’t going to make an exception to allow the Super League rebels to get the best of him.

There were suggestions that Barcelona’s statement, with its heavy posturing, was simply the club’s last-ditch bluff to spook Tebas into green-lighting the Messi deal, salary cap be damned.

That may be a cynical way of looking at things, but it’s absolutely possible! Not that the motive ultimately matters. The ploy, if it was one, didn’t work.

But didn’t La Liga just get a huge influx of cash?

La Liga sealed a deal to sell 10% of its commercial operations to private equity firm CVC for €2.7 billion earlier this week. The first- and second-division clubs – including Barca, who could fetch around €280 million – will share that windfall.

Problem solved, right? Not exactly.

La Liga said only a small portion of each team’s proceeds (15%) could be used on transfers and wages. That’s not nearly enough to cover Barcelona’s salary-cap deficit, meaning Messi’s contract still couldn’t be registered.

There’s also the issue of the deal itself, which Barca – and perennial rivals Real Madrid – publicly and staunchly opposed. Neither side was involved in the negotiations, and both teams claim Tebas made the sale without asking for input.

If anything, that deal created more discord between the two sides, not less. Not all cash is created equally, apparently.

So PSG, huh?

There were only a few realistic options once it was confirmed Messi was actually leaving the Camp Nou. And PSG, with their vast reserves of Qatari money, seemed like the most likely destination for a variety of reasons.

There’s an existing relationship with close friend and former Barca teammate Neymar, who’s been pushing for this move since arriving in the French capital. The presence of fellow Argentine Mauricio Pochettino certainly helps, too. PSG can give Messi another legitimate crack at the Champions League title, and unlike Barca, they won’t run him into the ground during league play. That’s surely enticing for the 34-year-old with the 2022 World Cup, likely his last such event with Argentina, on the horizon.

Ultimately, though, this probably came down to money. It always does.

PSG can offer Messi unrivaled wages. Why should he take a pay cut, after all? It wasn’t his fault Barcelona were in debt, and he’s entitled to finding the best possible deal as a free agent.

Obviously he doesn’t need the cash, but Messi can and should seek as much as possible. Once Manchester City spent a boatload on Jack Grealish, Pep Guardiola and Co. were out of the running, leaving PSG to pounce.

But how the hell can PSG afford this?

The shrug emoji was created for exactly this reason.

PSG, one of the game’s nouveau-rich sides, certainly appear to be above UEFA’s feeble regulations. Financial Fair Play (FFP) – which stipulates that clubs can’t spend more than the team earns – is powerless to stop state-owned teams from outspending the competition. And that’s not really PSG’s fault, as it’s UEFA’s responsibility to ensure an even playing field, and teams will use any means necessary to find an edge if it can’t.

PSG have sure done that, too. They’ve added free agents Gianluigi Donnarumma, Sergio Ramos, and Georginio Wijnaldum on big contracts this summer in search of an elusive Champions League crown, all while signing Achraf Hakimi for €60 million from Inter Milan. And now they appear poised to land the biggest fish of all.

Meanwhile, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe are sitting on huge contracts of their own, and the club is adamant it’ll be able to keep the French star. It’s all very fanciful.

Adding Messi will of course help the team’s cash flow, but even he may not be capable of balancing the books.

The financial dealings of just about every major football club are shady at best. But PSG has established a proven track record of FFP breaches, and they’ve been punished previously. Yes, the club brings in massive revenue, but it’s difficult to envision a scenario in which this is all above board, especially in the current economic climate.

How will he fit in there?

Strictly looking at it from an on-pitch perspective, Messi suiting up at the Parc des Princes alongside Neymar and Mbappe is mouthwatering, tactics be damned. Whether it’s a devastating front three, Messi playing in the hole, or any other configuration you can imagine, that amount of otherworldly talent together will make magic happen.

Where each megastar fits into your rankings will vary, but there’s a very real argument that PSG will be rolling out three of the five best players on the planet if Messi arrives.

The gaudy numbers that Barcelona’s famed “MSN” triumvirate produced could easily pale in comparison to what these three superheroes might deliver, particularly during league play against some slightly less challenging foes. The Ligue 1 record for goals scored during a 38-match season is 118 (RC Paris in 1959-60), in case you were wondering.

The sight of Messi in a PSG shirt will appall many, but you better believe they’ll be tuning in each week.

What does this mean for Barcelona?

It’s … not great.

Barca have been heavily dependent on Messi in recent years while relying on the Argentine to progress the ball, create chances, and score goals. And he’s constantly delivered, keeping the Blaugrana competitive – and even making them title winners – almost single-handedly since Neymar left in 2017.

The likes of Pedri, Ansu Fati, and Frenkie de Jong are luminous young talents worthy of building any team around. But it’s painfully obvious that removing the sport’s best player comes with enormous ramifications for the on-pitch product.

Even if it’ll help Barcelona become financially stable in the long run, this move is a huge win for Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid from a competitive standpoint right now.

And for Messi?

An emotional Messi confirmed Sunday that he wanted to stay at Barcelona.

“This year, my family and I were convinced we were going to stay here, at home – this is what we wanted more than anything,” the Argentine, fighting to hold back tears, said during a sombre, surreal press conference.

“This is really difficult for me after so many years spent here – my entire life. I’m not ready for this,” he added.

You’re not alone, Leo.