Neymar has finally spoken about the hell Lionel Messi went through when he was still playing for Ligue 1 giant PSG for two seasons.
Speaking in an interview with Glovo on Sunday, 3rd September 2023, the former PSG attacker talked about the mixed feelings he had when his former PSG and Barcelona teammate Lionel Messi won the World Cup with Argentina last year.
“I was very happy for the year [Messi] had, but at the same time very sad, because he lived both sides of the coin,” said Neymar, who joined Al‑Hilal this summer, after leaving PSG.
“He went to heaven with the Argentina team, won everything in recent years, and with Paris he lived hell, we lived through hell, both he and I.”
Neymar and Messi were subject to massive criticism from PSG fans as they failed to win the Champions League with the club.
The stars were constantly booed towards the end of their time at the French side.
Neymar added: “We get upset, because we’re not there for nothing, we’re there to do our best, [to] be champions, try to make history.”
“That’s why we started playing together again, we came together there so we could make history. Unfortunately, we didn’t make it.”
Lionel Messi left PSG this summer, joining Inter Miami in Major League Soccer, where he has transformed the club to another level.
Neymar also stated that the criticism of the Argentinian by PSG fans was unfair after he did well with the French Ligue 1 Champions.
“He’s a guy who trains, who fights, if he loses he gets angry and he was unfairly targeted, in my opinion,” he added.
Neymar also spoke about the racist abuse his friend Vinícius Júnior has suffered in Spain which is not the only problem with fans in France.
“It’s sad, it’s sad, today’s world has changed a lot, all this prejudice with colour … it’s very sad to see a friend go through this,” Neymar said. “Not just a friend, but all the people who have gone through this and go through this on a daily basis.”
Messi shocked the world after he joined PSG in the summer of 2021 following his shocking exit from his boyhood club Barcelona.
The Argentine was welcomed with plenty of hope, and a huge set of PSG fans were present to watch his official unveiling.
In his first season in Paris, Lionel Messi only scored six league goals and then failed to push PSG towards their first-ever Champions League win.
Messi was roundly booed by supporters at the Parc des Princes, and this got worse during his second season with PSG.
Messi while peaking to RMC Sport, said: “At first it was great. I received a lot of encouragement as I’ve often said, but then people started to treat me differently, some of the Paris fans. The majority, on the other hand, treated me as well as they did at the start.”
“There was a rift with a large section of the Paris crowd. Of course it wasn’t my intention.”
“But these are things that have already happened with Mbappe and Neymar too, it’s their way of doing things. But I still remember all those people who supported me, as they did at the start.”
Neymar
Neymar da Silva Santos Júnior, known as Neymar Júnior or as just Neymar, is a Brazilian footballer who was born on 5 February 1992 and plays as a forward for Paris Saint-Germain and the Brazil national team.
He is a prolific goalscorer and renowned playmaker. He is widely regarded as one of the best players in the world as well as one of the greatest Brazilian footballers of all time.
He moved to PSG in 2017 in a move worth €222 million, making him the most expensive player in football history.
