The sun dipped low over Biscayne Bay, casting a golden haze across Inter Miami’s training grounds, where Lionel Messi – now 38, with salt flecks in his beard and a World Cup medal still heavy around his neck – paused mid-drill. It was an unassuming Tuesday, the kind where the GOAT trades shin guards for flip-flops, but today carried weight. In a candid sit-down with ESPN’s Global Game Changers – his first deep dive into the PSG chapter since trading Paris for pink kits two years ago – Messi pulled back the curtain on the trio that promised to conquer Europe: himself, Neymar, and Kylian Mbappé. What emerged wasn’t just nostalgia for 42 goals in 58 games; it was a raw mosaic of brotherhood forged in fire, fractured by egos, and ultimately, redeemed by time. “We were magic,” Messi said, his voice a quiet rumble over the crash of waves. “But magic has its storms.”

The interview, filmed at Messi’s waterfront estate amid the laughter of his sons splashing in the pool, clocks in at 45 minutes of unfiltered Leo – the boy from Rosario who bent the beautiful game to his will, now reflecting on the French interlude that tested him like no other. PSG’s 2021 gamble – reuniting Messi with ex-Barça comrade Neymar after a €35 million splash – was billed as football’s Avengers: the Argentine alchemist, the Brazilian wizard, and the French prodigy Mbappé, 23 then and already a World Cup darling. They dazzled in flashes: that 4-1 demolition of Real Madrid in the 2022 UCL quarters, Mbappé’s brace sandwiching Messi’s assist to Neymar; or the Ligue 1 coronation parades where the Parc des Princes thrummed like a coliseum. Off the ball? Messi paints a portrait of late-night asados in Paris apartments, samba-infused FIFA sessions where Neymar’s trash-talk met Mbappé’s competitive fire, and Messi as the quiet mediator, sipping mate while the young guns plotted world domination.

“We got along spectacularly,” Messi insisted, his eyes crinkling with that trademark half-smile as he recalled the early days. “Ney and I? We’re brothers from another life. Barcelona bound us – those MSN days with Suárez, unbeatable. When I landed in Paris, it was like slipping into an old glove. We’d finish each other’s passes without looking; he’d juke a defender, I’d thread the needle. Off-pitch? Endless laughs. He’d drag me to those samba clubs – me, the old man, trying to keep up.” Neymar, now 33 and back at Santos after a Saudi detour, echoed the sentiment in a recent Romário podcast: “Leo’s my soulmate on the grass. We spoke the same football language.” Their chemistry peaked in that 2022 season opener against Troyes – Neymar’s no-look heel to Messi for the opener, Mbappé tapping in the third like clockwork. Fans dubbed it the “MNM Era,” a nod to the glory days, with PSG’s attack averaging 2.8 goals per game.

But Messi didn’t shy from the cracks. “Kylian? Phenomenal. A force of nature – speed like lightning, finishing like poetry. He was the spark we needed up top, different from Luis. Suárez was the killer nine, all grit and guile; Kylian’s a winger at heart, stretching defenses till they snap.” Mbappé, now terrorizing La Liga with Real Madrid (28 goals in 35 since his 2024 free transfer), idolized Messi from afar – tattooing the Argentine’s silhouette on his arm post-2018 World Cup semis. Their bond bloomed in training: Messi mentoring the kid on vision, Mbappé schooling him on raw pace. “He’d ask about free-kicks till midnight,” Messi chuckled. “I told him, ‘It’s not magic – it’s math and muscle.’ He got it quick. We’d celebrate goals like family – hugs that lingered, whispers of ‘next one’s yours.’”

Yet, as the camera zoomed in on Messi’s weathered hands – scarred from a thousand battles – the tone shifted. “We had storms, no denying it. Egos in a team like that? They’re fuel, but they burn hot.” He alluded to the “penalty-gate” whispers of 2022, when Mbappé’s spot-kick heroics clashed with Neymar’s flair, fans pitting them as rivals in a city starved for UCL glory. “Ney and Kylian? Brothers at first – Ney called him ‘Golden Boy,’ lifted him up. But when I arrived… things tensed. Ney says Kylian got jealous of our history, our shorthand. Didn’t want to share the spotlight, or the laughs. Little fights – a missed pass here, a sharp word there. I stayed out, focused on the ball. But it hurt, seeing potential fracture.”

Messi’s candor validates Neymar’s bombshell from January: “When Leo came, Kylian changed. A little jealous – didn’t want to share Ney with anyone. That’s where the scraps started.” Mbappé, in a terse post-match Madrid presser last month, fired back: “Jealous? Nah. Competitive, yes. We pushed each other – that’s how champions grow.” But Messi, ever the sage, bridges the chasm: “It wasn’t malice. Pressure cooker, that club. Billions spent, one trophy expected. Fans turned quick – boos for me after a dry spell, chants dividing us. But we talked it out. Post-Qatar [World Cup semis, where Messi’s Argentina crushed Mbappé’s France 3-3 (4-2 pens)], we embraced. No grudges. Football’s too short.”

The trio’s ledger? A Ligue 1 double, 112 combined goals, but that elusive Champions League ghost – knocked out by Bayern in ’22, Madrid in ’23. Messi’s PSG exit in 2023 – a mutual “thanks but no thanks” amid fan jeers – stung, but he frames it as growth. “Ney and I? Still text weekly – memes, match clips. He’s family. Kylian? We swap tips on Miami life; he’s eyeing a vacation here. No bad blood. If we’d clicked harder… who knows? But we made history, flaws and all.” Neymar, in his Romário chat, named Messi and Mbappé in his dream five-a-side: “Egos? Necessary, but shared. We learned that the hard way.”

Fans, starved for this vulnerability, flooded socials post-airing: #MNMReunion trended with 2.8 million posts, edits splicing their PSG highlights to Coldplay’s “Fix You.” “Messi spilling tea without spilling blood – king behavior,” tweeted @MessiMuse. In Miami, where he’s captained Inter to playoff glory (22 goals this MLS season), Messi’s reflections feel like closure. “Relationships evolve,” he mused, glancing at Antonela and the boys through the window. “Ney taught me joy in the chaos; Kylian, hunger that never fades. Grateful for the ride.”

As the sun sank, Messi laced up for a kickabout with Thiago, Mateo, and Ciro – mini-Messis dreaming of their own trios. The PSG chapter closes not with bitterness, but a nod to what could’ve been. In football’s grand tapestry, MNM wasn’t perfect, but it was poetry – messy, magnificent, and forever etched. Messi’s words? A gentle reminder: even gods bleed, love, and let go.