Marco Verratti flies to the Middle East

Marco Verratti ready for Qatar

Marco Verratti's experience in Europe, after the long tug-of-war with PSG, è practically ended: the Abruzzo-born footballer is not on the Parisian team's Champions list and even, according to reports by 'RMC Sport', he is already in Doha, Qatar, to sign a contract with Al-Arabi.

Therefore, there is very little time left until the agreement between the Qatari club and Paris Saint-Germain is made official: the transfer will yield the French champion club 50 million euros, including bonuses. Verratti, therefore, leaves France after 11 years, in which he won nine French championships, as many Super Cups, six League Cups and six French Cups.

Verratti, born in 1992, had earned a permanent place on the national team thanks to his performances with PSG, even winning the 2020 European Championship played in the summer of 2021. After 55 appearances for the Azzurri, however, his name does not appear among new coach Luciano Spalletti’s call-ups for this weekend’s European qualifying matches.

The midfielder made his national team debut on Aug. 15, 2012, in a friendly against England in Bern (1-2 for the English on the Swiss pitch). He has scored three goals in the Azzurri shirt: on Feb. 6, 2013 in the 1-1 draw against the Netherlands in a friendly, on March 26, 2019 in the 6-0 win over Liechtenstein in the Euro2020 qualifiers and, also in the same round, on June 11, 2019 in the 2-1 win inflicted on Bosnia-Herzegovina.