Even thou Lionel Messi left Barcelona this year and signed for PSG in a spectacular move, Spanish media are still very much into everything the Argentinian is doing. After a big interview with Catalonian ‘Sport’ at the beginning of November, former Barca’s captain talked to ’Marca’ and covered different topics: from Barcelona and Koeman to Xavi, from Ronaldo to Ramos and he also talked about Champions League ambitions with his new team, as well as his teammate Kylian Mbappe. Unlike the ’Sport’ interview, Messi now looks more settled in France than 20 days ago. His family moved from hotel to a house, the kids are now back to school, and Messi is finally spending more time in Paris, as his international duties with Argentina are over. 🐐🔟 Messi en @MARCA. El Barça, Xavi, PSG, Ramos, la España de Luis Enrique… “No lo sé. Pero ya está, me fui de allí y ha pasado el tiempo. Lo que me dijeron es que no me podían renovar y que no me podía quedar”🎬 𝗘𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗮 𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗲𝘁𝗮, 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗲 𝟭 pic.twitter.com/iaeTzfRIkm— MARCA (@marca) November 23, 2021 It’s been three years since Cristiano Ronaldo signed for Juventus and left La Liga, but the greatest rivalry in football between Leo Messi and Ronaldo is still interesting topic for the Spanish media and they couldn’t pass the opportunity to ask the Argentinian about his great rival, who is playing in United. „United is a very strong team with great players. Cristiano already knew the club, but that was in another stage and now he has adapted in an impressive way. From the beginning he has scored goals as always and had no problems adapting. In the Premier it is not as good as we all thought, but it is a very difficult and even competition in which things take a lot of turns. It’s been a long time since we stopped competing in the same league. We competed individually and as a team for the same goals. It was a very beautiful stage for us and also for the people because they enjoyed it very much. It is a beautiful memory that will remain in the history of football“ said the Argentinian. On this day in 2014, Lionel Messi became La Liga’s all-time top scorer.He then added another 222 🤯(via @LaLigaEN) pic.twitter.com/pfXbOPNrv4— B/R Football (@brfootball) November 22, 2021 Being paired with such stars like Neymar and Mbappe, it is normal to think that PSG is the biggest favorite for Champions League trophy. After all, rich Qatar owners want this trophy and have brougth players accordingly to their wishes. Messi hasn’t denied that his new team is the favorite, but the four time Champions League winner knows the competition and was careful. „Everyone says that we are the big favorites and I will not deny that we are one of the candidates by name, but we still need things to be a really strong team. We have to finish consolidating as a team and we have the advantage of having very great players to achieve it. But we are not the only ones, there are other great teams that are candidates. The Champions League is a very difficult competition , that makes it so beautiful and special. The best teams are there and it is getting more and more complicated. Yes, we are one of the favorites, but not the only ones. Today, Liverpool is very well, it has returned to being the Liverpool that won the Champions League. Then there are City, Bayern, Madrid, Atlético … There are many teams that can fight for this Champions League, which is one of the most even and competitive in recent years because there are several teams that can choose to win it“ said Messi. Xavi’s Champions League debut is what this night is all aboutBiggest part of the interview was left for Messi’s former club, Barcelona. Former Barca’s captain talked about his possible return to the club, the current squad, Xavi’s arrival, but also former coach Ronald Koeman.„I always said that at some point I will return to Barcelona because it is my home and because I am going to live there. And obviously if I can contribute and help the club I would love to come back. Barcelona is going through a stage of reconstruction with a team in which there are many young players. Today I think there are better teams than Barcelona, but, although they now give that impression, that does not mean that later they will not be able to fight because we must take into account the arrival of Xavi, the renewed illusions and the power to recover some players that now do not have. They can keep growing and fighting. It can contribute a lot. He is a coach who knows a lot, knows the house perfectly and has lived in Barcelona since he was a child. He will be a very important coach for the younger footballers because he will teach them. With him the team will grow a lot. I do not have any doubt. I speak with Xavi often. We are friends, we have shared many things and since he left we have kept in touch. I’m sure he’s going to do very well because he knows a lot, he’s a hard worker and knows the house well. You are always unfair to coaches . It was unfair with Koeman, with Valverde … When there are bad results, the easiest thing is to target the coach, change him and not the players. Koeman arrived at a very difficult time at the club in which important players left, but he was able to remove many young players. As I told you, the easiest thing is always to blame the coach“ said Messi. Barefooted Dani Alves sends an emotional message upon signing for Barca: ”Nothing compares to you”In his new team, a French star is about to leave the club. Kylian Mbappe’s possible free transfer to Real was the main story in August, when the transfer window was closing, and it’s heating again now, as we are close to January. Even thou nobody expected that Messi will reveal any new information, Marca journalists still asked him about Mbappe. „The truth is I do not know. Only he knows what he has in his head and what he is going to do. I can only say that I am happy that he has stayed here this year. He is a very important player for us and to fight for the goals we have. He has a hundred percent head on our goals. And then he will decide what he will do when the season is over. The truth is that I don’t know what will happen. He speaks Spanish perfectly. But he also speaks English and obviously French very well“ revealed Messi. Messi: ‘I would like to be a technical secretary at Barca’Another current teammate is a former great rival, Real captain Sergio Ramos, and the PSG forward admits it was a bit weird at the beginning, but now, the pair talk regularly and are used to each other’s company. „At first it was weird after so many years of rivalry, being the two captains of Barca and Madrid, after so many Classics played, so many fights we had on the pitch … But all that was left there inside and we have always respected each other a lot, no matter how much we have been great rivals in those Classics. Having him as a partner today is a show. It is true that we had not had great talks, but we have crossed paths in the League for many years and we had spoken more than once. I already had an idea of what it was like. He had former teammates who had been with him in the Spanish team so I already knew him. And now when we have had more treatment here in Paris I have seen that he is a great person“ said Messi.
