Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe’s alleged tense relationship following the World Cup final has been clarified by Paris Saint-Germain head coach Christopher Galtier.
Despite social media reports to the contrary, the head coach has stated that the World Cup final result did not harm the relationship between the two players, who will both return to club duties in Paris.
Mbappe and Messi were key players for France and Argentina who clashed in the final of the Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup where a rivalry between the two PSG players was created by the media and fans.
Both were essential to their teams’ efforts to win the World Cup with the seven-time Ballon d’Or winner scoring twice in the final, while his French counterpart became only the second player in history to score a hat-trick in the tournament’s final.
Messi however assisted his team in winning their third World Cup trophy by overcoming the reigning champions France in a tightly contested match that was decided on a post-match penalty shootout after a 3-3 draw.
Galtier said during a pre-match press conference on Monday that, “there is no reason to mix everything up in the relationship between Kylian and Leo Messi.”
“Kylian has a very good attitude having lost the World Cup. When you lose a World Cup final, you have a reason to be very disappointed. He was very disappointed, but he knew how to go on and behave and had a lot of class to congratulate Leo, and that’s very good for the club and for the team.”
Galtier also confirmed that Messi will miss PSG’s return to league action tonight as he is still in Argentina.
“He had to return to Argentina for the celebrations, the receptions and we decided that he was going to be off until January 1,” he said. “And so he will come and join us either on the 2nd or the 3rd to be able to resume competition with us when he will have had between 13 and 14 days of recovery.”
PSG will play tonight against Strasbourg as they look to keep up their French Ligue 1 title defense.
They have played 15 games so far and now lead the standings with 41 points after winning 13 and drawing two of those games.
