How Messi’s Marriage With P.S.G. Fell Apart

The moment the private jet carrying Lionel Messi to a lucrative sponsorship engagement in Saudi Arabia taxied onto a French runway early this week, his career at Paris St.-Germain was effectively over.

The suspension would come a day later. The official parting won’t happen until his contract expires in a few weeks. The blame game may go on for months.

But by Wednesday there was no doubt on the main points: Messi will never play for P.S.G. again, and both the player and the club are just fine with that.

The ending will not have come as a surprise to either side. Theirs had always been a business relationship, one lacking the emotional weight of Messi’s previous tenure at Barcelona. And while there had been talks about renewing the forward’s contract in the weeks and months after Messi led Argentina to the World Cup title in December in Qatar, neither side appeared committed to consummating a deal.

But by skipping a practice on Monday, a day after fans in Paris had jeered the league leaders for a home loss to Lorient, a middling team that P.S.G.’s stacked roster was expected to swat aside, any idea of a renewal extinguished.