By Tim Stannard

With Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe in the squad, it's unlikely anyone would have picked Ander Herrera to be PSG's star performer at the start of the season. Not even Herrera himself. 

Yet, it's the Spanish midfielder who has been the tsar of the stats in the opening weeks of the campaign with four goals and two assists in seven games. "If I'm the top scorer of the team, then it's going to be bad," noted Herrera to Spanish radio on Thursday night. 

The three goals scored in Ligue 1 are one more than the entirety of the previous two seasons for PSG. Herrera has also become a wise observer in the PSG locker room, watching the mad goings-on of the club from the arrival of Lionel Messi over the summer to the in-out-in-out transfer window stories of Kylian Mbappe. 

On the topic of Mbappe, Herrera revealed that he knew his colleague would not be leaving PSG because Mbappe said so himself. "I asked him a couple of weeks before the market closed and he told me "I'm here, I'm here."

The former Manchester United man has also had a first-hand look at the way Lionel Messi goes about his business and says he is very much the quiet leader of the group. "When he arrives in Paris and is the first to be in the gym, when he is not and takes the time to joke with others, that is an example of leadership," declared Herrera. "Seeing that the best in the world does not cut any corners makes the younger ones say: If he is like this, we have to follow him."

👉🔥 Catch what is set to be Messi's home debut for PSG in a massive match against Lyon live on beIN SPORTS on Sunday from 2:30PM ET / 11:30AM PT.  🐐⚽️

⚽️🇫🇷 The Ligue 1 weekend gets underway today on beIN SPORTS with an early relegation six-pointer between Strasbourg and Metz from 2:50PM ET / 11:50AM PT. 👀

Dani Alves set for Flamengo flight?

A former PSG player is also making news on Friday with Dani Alves suddenly joining the ranks of young, free and single on the transfer market - well, not young for a soccer player at the age of 38, but still young for a human being. 

The ex-Barcelona player has officially left Sao Paulo after the Brazilian club were unable to keep up his salary payments. Sao Paulo didn't have too much choice in the matter considering Alves was no longer showing up, but the club announced that the footballer had been released from his contract one year early. 

Flamengo are now hot favorites to snap up one of the greatest players of the modern era. And Flamengo are also in action next week on beIN SPORTS as the Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamericana semifinals get underway starting Tuesday. 

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