Lionel Messi has expressed his gratitude to his current club Paris Saint-Germain teammates for the guard of honour they gave him upon his return from the World Cup in Qatar.
The guard of honour was in recognition of Messi’s record-breaking performance in the final, as he led Argentina to their first World Cup title since 1986 and was awarded the FIFA Golden Ball for best player.
Notably absent from the guard of honour were Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi, who scored a hat-trick in the final to win the Golden Boot award.
When he returned to PSG training on Wednesday, he was greeted like a hero.
Mbappe and teammate Hakimi were both granted leave by the club’s manager, Christophe Galtier, after the Ligue 1 leaders’ undefeated streak was broken against Lens.
As a result, neither player was present for Messi’s homecoming, however Mbappe’s younger brother Ethan was present after just joined PSG’s first-team squad.
“Hakimi and Mbappe will have a few days off,” Galtier confirmed after PSG crashed to a 3-1 loss at Lens – their first domestic defeat of his rein and first since March last year. “The plan was that they could play these two games. They will now recover.”
Messi took to Instagram on Wednesday to write: “Many thanks to my teammates and all the people from the club for the welcome they gave me. We are back and looking forward to continuing to meet our goals for this season, now with Paris Saint-Germain!”
Argentina won the Copa America triumph last year, their first major trophy in three decades, but the agony of missing out on the World Cup victory had persisted over the years since it had been the one medal that had escaped him until now.