LILIAN THURAM
France, 1994-08
"The PSG squad is made up of many excellent players, especially forwards. If you boast [Lionel] Messi, Neymar and [Kylian] Mbappé, it is really unbelievable. Truthfully, if I were a centre back now, I would love to face them. If Fabio [Cannavaro] and Gigi [Buffon], who still plays, were young, they would have put on a show against them, it would be so difficult to stop them. But it doesn't mean you win in the end. If you have Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo... well no, with Cristiano you win a lot, but with Messi, Neymar and Mbappé no victory is granted. You need the entire team and this is what football is about. Teams win.
"Messi playing for PSG is good for French football. He is a great player. I hope PSG can take advantage of his class. But in truth, Barcelona losing Messi is a problem. It means they had a lot of problems with their budget. Now they resort to youngsters, but Barça is Barça. Great clubs can always bounce back from problems."