(Buenos Aires) Lionel Messi reiterated in an interview his disappointment after his time at PSG (2021-2023), declaring not to have been “recognized” there as world champion, and remains cautious about his possible participation in the World Cup. 2026.
“It wasn’t what I hoped for, but I always say that things happen for a reason,” Messi said of his Parisian years, in a casual interview with Argentine actor and comedian Miguel Garrados, broadcast on Thursday on the Olga YouTube channel.
“Even if I didn’t do well there (at PSG), I became world champion there. Everything happens for a reason, and maybe it was meant to be like this…” mused the now Inter Miami striker, in the North American championship.
Messi regretted not having had the “recognition” of PSG, after his 2022 world champion title in Qatar acquired at the expense of France.
“The fact is that I was the only player, among the 25 others (Argentinian world champions) who did not have recognition,” he notes. ” But it does not matter “.
“Afterwards, it was understandable, I was in the place where […] “because of us” they had not been world champions again”, muses the seven-time Ballon d’Or.
The Albiceleste captain still stressed that he got along “very well with Kylian (Mbappé), as with all the other” players.
Messi, 36, who regularly welcomes his arrival and his welcome in Florida, has already said on several occasions that he was unhappy with his passage through Paris, he who in 2021 did not want to leave Barcelona, the club of his beginnings.
A career choice which, according to him, affected his family life.
Neymar, his ex-Brazilian teammate at PSG, now at Al-Hilal (Saudi Arabia), and who sometimes endured, like Messi, the booing at the Parc des Princes, recently affirmed that Messi, like himself, had “experienced the ‘hell’ in Paris.
Also discussing his future as a player, and a possible participation in the 2026 World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico, when he will be 39, Messi reiterated his uncertainty, and is focusing on the Copa America in June-July 2024 in the United States.
“I don’t know if I’ll make it (at the World Cup), I’ve already said that. I’m not thinking about it yet because it’s far away, I’m thinking about the Copa America,” declared the international with 176 caps, still decisive against Ecuador in early September (1-0, goal from a free kick).
“After the Copa América, we’ll see, it depends on how I feel […]. I will see day by day. There are still three years to go.”
