Messi and Mbappé are teammates again—whether they like it or not

Lionel Messi has returned to practice at Paris Saint-Germain. He and teammate Kylian Mbappé haven’t trained together yet since they squared off in the World Cup final between Argentina and France last month. (Photo: AFP)
Lionel Messi has returned to practice at Paris Saint-Germain. He and teammate Kylian Mbappé haven’t trained together yet since they squared off in the World Cup final between Argentina and France last month. (Photo: AFP)

Summary

The two superstars have avoided each other since Argentina beat France in the World Cup final. But starting this week, they won’t have that option

PARIS : Messi and Mbappé Are Teammates Again—Whether They Like it or Not

BY JOSHUA ROBINSON | UPDATED JAN 11, 2023 05:30 AM EST

The two superstars have avoided each other since Argentina beat France in the World Cup final. But starting this week, they won’t have that option.

When Lionel Messi returned to practice at Paris Saint-Germain last week as a newly-crowned world champion, his teammates and club staff greeted him with a guard of honor. But as they lined up to applaud the man who had carried Argentina to victory over France, there was a notable absentee: Kylian Mbappé.

The guy Messi beat in the final in Qatar was 3,500 miles away, on vacation in New York, taking in basketball games and wandering through Times Square. It wasn’t an accident.

As soccer life returns to normal following the World Cup, PSG now boasts one of the most expensive locker rooms in the sport—and its most uncomfortable. After their duel in Lusail, Messi and Mbappé (plus a dispirited Neymar) must figure out how to work together again to make PSG’s enormous investment in them worthwhile. The only thing that would satisfy the club’s Qatari owners now is to win the Champions League.

“We’ll wait till Leo’s back so that we can get back to winning games and scoring goals," Mbappé said before his trip to New York.

But first there is a reunion to manage. Mbappé and Messi haven’t overlapped at PSG practice since the World Cup ended more than three weeks ago. Messi took his break immediately to celebrate back home in Argentina, while Mbappé returned to the club first and delayed his World Cup recovery. He’s due back in Paris for good this week.

The awkwardness has reached the point where it’s unclear how Messi will be greeted by PSG’s own fans when the club hosts Angers in the French league on Wednesday night. (Mbappé will miss the game.) Other teams with Argentine players on their roster organized pregame displays to welcome their conquering heroes home. But World Cup recognition has become a zero-sum game at PSG. How can the club celebrate Messi, who scored two goals in the final and left with the trophy, without offending Mbappé, who scored three goals in the final and went home in tears?

Making matters even more delicate, Mbappé is the homegrown kid from the Paris suburbs who signed a lavish extension to his contract last summer instead of leaving for Real Madrid. Messi is the genius who lit up the sport for his entire career, but was so underwhelming in his first season at PSG after arriving in the summer of 2021 that the home supporters actually booed him.

“There isn’t a need or a request from Leo to be celebrated," PSG manager Christophe Galtier said before Wednesday’s match. “But I hope he’ll be celebrated by our fans. It’s Leo Messi, a Paris Saint-Germain player who is a world champion. We’re very lucky to have a player like him at our club."

Galtier was only thrown into this situation over the summer. A plain-spoken, French soccer lifer from Marseille, he quickly learned that managing PSG’s stable of superstars requires some care in his public statements. And since the World Cup, he’s been deliberate in doling out praise to both Messi and Mbappé in equal doses.

Star-studded teams have had to deal with uncomfortable World Cup fallout before. It’s practically inevitable when the best players in the world are concentrated on half a dozen teams. In the wake of the 2006 tournament in Germany, it was Manchester United working out how to handle a potentially ugly reunion between Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo.

Rooney had been sent off in England’s quarterfinal loss to Portugal for stamping on a Portuguese defender and Ronaldo, who had urged the referee to show him a red card, reacted to Rooney’s ejection by winking at the dugout. The situation became so inflamed in the British tabloids that Ronaldo considered leaving United. But the two men, close friends since their teenage years, were able to smooth things over early.

One difference in Paris is that Messi and Mbappé have never been all that chummy. The other is that neither Rooney or Ronaldo cost each other a World Cup. On Dec. 19 in Doha, Mbappé had to stand on the same stage as Messi to collect an individual award having just missed the chance to win his second final by the age of 24. Messi, likely playing in the tournament for the last time, never even glanced at his club teammate.

While the Argentines went about their ostentatious celebrations on the field, Mbappé could only sit there and watch.

“I spoke with him a little bit after the game," Mbappé said of Messi. “I congratulated him, because it was the goal of a lifetime for him—for me too, but I failed. But you have to be a good sport. As for the celebrations, that’s not my problem. I’m not losing any energy over such futile things."

Their cohabitation in Paris may not have to last very long. Last summer, Mbappé was persuaded to extend his stay at PSG by the club, an enormous salary offer, and a phone call from French President Emmanuel Macron. PSG was ready to commit hundreds of millions of dollars to building its future around him. But Mbappé now seems the likelier of the two megastars to leave should the situation become untenable.

Despite rumors during the World Cup of a potential move to the U.S. this summer, Messi has already begun negotiating to extend his stay in France.

“There are talks and the sporting directors have spoken to Leo about an extension," Galtier said on Tuesday. “Leo seems happy in Paris… But I don’t talk about these things with him."

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