Messi was given a hero’s welcome on his return to PSG but his main adversary in the World Cup final, Mbappe, was not in attendance after being granted leave from club duties.
Lionel Messi was given a guard of honour on his return to Paris Saint-Germain on Wednesday – but his PSG teammate and World Cup rival Kylian Mbappe was nowhere to be seen.
Messi received a hero’s welcome at PSG’s training base in Poissy two and a half weeks after captaining Argentina to the World Cup in Qatar. The 24-year-old Mbappe, who is widely considered Messi’s successor as the next dominant individual in the game, scored a hat-trick for France in the final and converted in the penalty shootout too, but it was not enough to deny the 35-year-old Messi World Cup glory at the fifth and final attempt.
After time spent celebrating in Argentina, Messi was greeted with hugs by teammates such as Italian midfielder Marco Verratti and Brazilians Marquinhos and Neymar on his return to Paris. But Mbappe was not there to see him after being granted leave by manager Christophe Galtier, along with friend and fellow PSG teammate Achraf Hakimi who reached the World Cup third-place playoff with Morocco.
“Hakimi and Mbappe will have a few days off,” Galtier confirmed following PSG’s defeat to title rivals Lens on the weekend. “The plan was that they could play these two games [after the World Cup]. They will now recover.”
Mbappe and Hakimi were at an NBA basketball game in New York on Monday where they met Brooklyn Nets stars like Kevin Durant in the dressing room after the event.
Source: https://www.independent.co.uk/
