Lionel Messi has only lived in two countries for the majority of his life, Argentina and Spain. As a result, the 34-year-old wasn’t only transitioning to a new club but an entirely different city, country, language, and culture.
Messi spoke to the Spanish media outlet Sport, where he discussed the transition off the pitch going from Barcelona to Paris. The Argentine discussed the significant changes that his family is enduring moving to the French capital.
During the interview, Messi stated that his family had everything close to their home in Barcelona, which allowed him to pick up his kids from school. However, now he says that living in Paris doesn’t allow much time for him to do that; furthermore, he touched on his family’s adjustment to living in Paris.
“Yes. It is different. In Castelldefels, we were badly used to it. We had everything easy, close. I was going to take the children to school; I would come, I would train, I would go home to eat, I would pick up the children. Today I don’t have enough to pick up the kids at school and go to training. For time. Neither is going to look for them.”
“Personally, I like being at home. In Barcelona, he didn’t go out that much either. It has been the biggest change for the children and Antonella because they lived on the street, with friends, doing things. Little friends came home all the time. Now they are just making friends and adjusting to the city. I think it was the biggest change for them.”
Messi also mentioned how painful it was for his kids to leave Barcelona after letting them know they would stay.
“The truth is. It was painful last year when we had said that I was going with the burofax issue and all this. In the end, they had understood, we had had a chat, more or less we had convinced them. This was all of a sudden,” Messi said.
“It had been a long time since we had told them that we were staying in Barcelona. That we were going to continue there, they had told their colleagues, friends. And then, suddenly we had to leave Barcelona, and in a week we were already in another city, everything new. So it was difficult for everyone.”
Finally, Messi stated that they hadn’t had enough time to get to know Paris as their priority is first getting his kids accommodated.
“We have gone out to eat sometime, but when the children started school, we started with the routine to accommodate them. Sightseeing we haven’t done yet,” Messi said.
