Lionel Messi reveals he had `hard time adapting´ to life at Paris St Germain | HO

Lionel Messi has revealed he was unhappy “on a daily basis” during his two-year spell at Paris St Germain and is now thriving on and off the pitch in Miami.

The 37-year-old eight-time Ballon d’Or winner joined Major League Soccer club Inter Miami, co-owned by David Beckham, from PSG in July 2023 after a troubled period in the French capital.

In an interview with Apple Music’s Zane Lowe, Messi said: “Coming to play for Inter Miami was an opportunity and the way things developed during my last years in Paris, although it was a decision that I had to make on the go because I had to leave from Barcelona, I went through two years which I didn’t enjoy.

“I wasn’t happy on a daily basis, with the training, the matches. I had a hard time adapting to all that. I felt called to come to Inter because it’s a club that’s growing, very new, with few years as a club.”

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Messi, who helped Miami win the 2024 MLS Supporters’ Shield before they were knocked out of the play-offs by Atlanta United in a major upset, said his family was also enjoying life in Florida.

“I liked the idea of coming and help the club to become a greater club and I also knew it was a city that my family and I would enjoy,” he said.

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Argentina´s Lionel Messi celebrates scoring against France in the 2022 World Cup final (Nick Potts/PA)

“Although I didn’t know it so well because I had come only a few times, I knew about it, because I have family and friends that visited and visit this city, and I thought it was the right time, and I don’t regret it, quite the opposite.”

Messi, who won his eighth Ballon d’Or after leading Argentina to glory at the 2022 World Cup, spent 21 years at Barcelona, with whom he won won four Champions Leagues, 10 LaLiga titles and seven Spanish Cups.

He is relishing the challenge of helping the MLS become one of the world’s top leagues and believes the 2025 FIFA Club World Cup, to be held in Miami next June, is “wonderful”.

Messi added: “I think this is very important for the club, especially, to participate for the first time in a World Cup that will take place in the country and for the MLS to have two teams is a wonderful thing.

“Everything that’s happening creates an opportunity for the MLS to keep growing in football, as a league, and for other players to have the opportunity to come and keep growing I think.”