Messi on joining PSG: I'm very happy to come here

Messi on joining PSG: I'm very happy to come here

Leo Messi: “Leaving Barcelona was so hard. But I’m so happy to join Paris Saint-Germain, ambitious club with a top team. They’ve been so fast and serious in the negotiations immediatly after Barça statement last Thursday”

“The team here is incredible. There have been some amazing signings. This will be an unbelievable experience for me. I do not know when I will first be able to play & I might need some preseason conditioning first.”

"Everything that happened me in the last week was hard, and fast too. It was emotional, changed from one day to the next, so many feelings. Nobody prepared for that. But I am excited about this new stage for my career and my family."

“The welcome I received was wonderful. I feel incredibly happy. I can't wait to get started with my teammates."

'I come from one month of vacation. Surely I will have to do a preparation, start training and when I am ready to start playing. I hope it will be soon.'

“My goal & my dream is to win the Champions League once more. I think that we have the team to do it here.”

"I have acquaintances and friends in the PSG dressing room. Both Paris and I were looking for the same goals, one of the reasons for the signing is the dressing room, that did a lot to choose this club."

Messi on the PSG fans: "I'm very grateful - grateful to the people in the street. I was in Barcelona when the press told me about that. I've seen things from Spain and the people were already outside in Paris and it was incredible to see them outside in the streets.

"I am grateful and want to thank them and now I really want to see them in the city and in the stadium. It will be an incredible year and we are going to enjoy this."

Lionel Messi is asked about upset Barca fans and raises the prospect of facing his former team: "It was very complicated to exit Barcelona without knowing where I was going to go. Barcelona is my home, I have been there since I was a kid. They knew I would arrive in a strong team, a team aiming to win the Champions League. I love to win. I want to have important goals. I know my goals and PSG's goals are the same and want to be bigger and bigger.

"I don't know if we will face Barcelona. It would be very nice to go back to Barcelona. I hope it would be with fans given the pandemic. It would be very strange to play there in another shirt but it can happen and we will see."

Messi: “Of course, Verratti is showing what a great player he is. He was wanted in Barcelona, but now it is the reverse & it is me coming to him in Paris. Not only Marco, the dressing room is full of the best players in the world.”

So, What does Messi know about French football?

"I've been following this, I've got friends in Paris and because of them I was following Ligue 1 and I think that this Championship has been growing a lot.

"Paris has worked a lot for the league because of the transfers and so on and I think that the league is more competitive, all of the teams are getting stronger because they want to win against Paris.

"So, it will be a new experience for me, I will have new rivals and I'm very happy to experience all these new atmospheres."

Lionel Messi references his family several times in summing up his thoughts on his move: "The only thing I told Leonardo (sporting director) was I really hoped my family would be at ease in Paris and feel OK in Paris and France.

"It's a new experience for me and I really want to do it. At the end of the day it is football and that is the same in the whole world.

"I am sure I will get used to my new team-mates and I am really happy. I want it to begin now. This is new for us but I am ready in the sporting aspect. For my family it's a beautiful city so we are happy."