Ex team-mate explains key difference between Messi and Ibrahimović | OneFootball

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Chloe Beresford·19 May 2022

Ex team-mate explains key difference between Messi and Ibrahimović

Article image:Ex team-mate explains key difference between Messi and Ibrahimović

Lionel Messi’s former Barcelona team-mate Maxwell has revealed what the Argentinian ace is like in training.

The pair were part of the same Barça side from 2009 to 2012, until Maxwell moved to PSG.


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“I was lucky in training,” the former left-back told sofoot.com.

“Messi was less intense than he was in matches. Otherwise, he’d have been impossible to stop.”

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Maxwell went on to say that Messi’s ferocity levels were generally lower than those of another former team-mate, Zlatan Ibrahimović.

“He’s not like Ibra, he chooses his moments,” continued the 40-year-old.

“But as soon as it got more intense in training, then he got going, he didn’t want to lose anymore.

“Then, his level of performance was exceptional, sometimes even more than it was in matches. There, I got to know him as a person, to understand a little about what made him magical.”

Maxwell joined PSG as a sporting director after his retirement in 2017, but left the club in 2019 due to legal issues in his native Brazil.