Lionel Messi's brilliant assist for Mbappe in PSG's open training session | OneFootball

Paris Saint-Germain have started their pre-season tour of Japan.

The French side have made the long journey to East Asia for three friendly matches against teams from the country.

PSG‘s first game sees them Kawasaki Frontale on Wednesday, before a meeting with Urawa Reds on Saturday.

Christophe Galtier’s men finish their Japanese adventure with a match against Gamba Osaka next Monday, which will act as a warm-up for their Trophee des Champions (the French equivalent of the Community Shield) encounter against Nantes on July 31st.

PSG began preparation for their meeting with Kawasaki by taking part in an open training session on Monday.

And during the session in Tokyo – which was attended by around 13,000 fans – Lionel Messi was at his brilliant best to entertain those watching on.

The seven-time Ballon d’Or winner produced a marvellous assist for fellow superstar Kylian Mbappe and the crowd absolutely loved every single second of it.

During a small-sided game, Messi stepped in to collect the ball after a loose touch from Mbappe and breezed past two of his PSG teammates like they weren’t even there, before setting up his French partner-in-crime for the easiest of tap-ins.

Check out the footage of the assist captured from the stands here…

Video: Messi’s assist for Mbappe in open training session

Fan reaction

The guy just makes football look way too easy – and he really loves assisting his teammates, even in training sessions!

In 2021/22, goals were unusually hard to come by for the Barcelona legend. Messi only managed to ripple the back of the net 11 times throughout the course of campaign, which by his lofty standards is bang average.

However, Messi did still contribute a more than healthy number of assists.

The 35-year-old finished the campaign with 15 to his name and only Mbappe recorded more in Ligue 1 last season.

Given that Messi is now settled in Paris and will have a full pre-season campaign behind him, which he certainly didn’t last season, we could see something close to the best version of him in 2022/23.

There’s also the added motivation of the World Cup in Qatar later this year, which could be the last time we see the great man at sport’s biggest tournament.

Diego Maradona and guide Argentina to glory.