The star and captain of the Argentine National Team Lionel Messi He came out to respond to his former teammate the French forward Kylian Mbappé after his controversial statements when he assured that the Eurocup is a “more difficult” competition than the World Cup.
“There are too many world champions out there to say that it is the most difficult,” Messi noted.
The words of Mbappé, who recently confirmed his signing for Real Madrid in Spain, did not go unnoticed by the Argentine star, who commented: “He’s leaving out a lot of world champions…”.
Although Messi did not deny the importance of the Euro Cup, which he recognized as a “very important” competition that brings together the best European teams, he argued that the European competition does not include teams like Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, which historically are powers in the world football.
“It is leaving out Argentina, three-time world champion, Brazil, five-time world champion, and Uruguay, two-time world champion”added Messi, defending the prestige of the South American teams.
The Frenchman had suggested that South American teams do not face the same level of competition as European teams, alluding to the fact that the Nations League better prepares European teams for the World Cup.
Messi did not agree with this assessment, stressing that “the best are in the World Cup” and insisted that the prestige and difficulty of the World Cup lie in the participation of all the world champions, and that the quality of the competition cannot be minimized. the South American teams.
“There are too many world champions out there to say that it is the most difficult,” said Messi, reaffirming that the ambition of all players is to win a World Cup.
The 2018 world champion striker highlighted the superiority of European competitions and questioned the progress of football in South America.
“In South America football is not as advanced as in Europe,” said Mbappé, suggesting that this is the reason why European teams have dominated recent editions of the World Cup.
