Kylian Mbappé Reflects on Bond with Lionel Messi After 2022 World Cup Final

Former Paris Saint-Germain star Kylian Mbappé sat down with French media outlet Clique and discussed many topics, including how he and Lionel Messi broke the ice after the 2022 FIFA World Cup final.

Argentina and France provided a game for the ages in the World Cup final in Qatar with the South American country winning on penalty kicks. Les Bleus fell short of winning back-to-back World Cups after winning the competition in 2018.

Upon returning to PSG, the capital club needed to navigate the emotions between the two players. The Ligue 1 side had to ensure that whatever sentiments from that matchup stayed on the pitch in Qatar.

Kylian Mbappé on relationship with Lionel Messi

Nonetheless, while talking to Clique, Mbappé noted that while the emotions ran high in that final, once the two were at PSG, he revealed that the match actually brought them together.

“It’s because it was Messi,” Mbappé said (h/t Le10Sport). “You respect Messi; he’s a living legend. But I was insanely furious! On the first day when we got together, we broke the ice. Because you feel a bit apprehensive—after all, we had just fought a battle that everyone saw, and now we found ourselves on the same team.

“We laughed about it. He told me, ‘You’ve already won once; you should’ve let me win too.’ We created memories together from the final. It’s good to know what the guy on the other side thinks. We laughed, and in the end, we had a second half of the season where we got along really well. I think that final actually brought us even closer together in the end.”

It will be interesting to see if Messi can continue to play at a high level and stay healthy to be part of the 2026 World Cup with Argentina.