Star coach Pep Guardiola has expressed his admiration for Argentine football world champion Lionel Messi.

"No one can doubt that he is one of the greatest of all time," said the Spanish coach of Manchester City, under whom Messi twice won the Champions League at FC Barcelona.

"If he hadn't won the World Cup my opinion of him wouldn't change, but it's the final stretch of an incredible career."

At the same time, Guardiola was delighted that he could soon welcome a world champion to City in Julián Álvarez.

A number of World Cup participants have already started training again.

“The players who were at the World Cup are in better shape than the players who were here.

Sergio (Gomez), Erling (Haaland), Riyad (Mahrez) and Cole (Palmer), they lack a bit of rhythm compared to Rodri or Manuel Akanji.

They played and we were on vacation," said Guardiola before the League Cup round of 16 on Thursday (9:00 p.m. CET) against great rivals Liverpool.

Mbappé is training again

For the 51-year-old Guardiola it is the first game after his contract extension until 2025. During this time the Spaniard finally wants to win the Champions League with City.

"It's not just the Champions League.

But I admit this is the trophy we want.

Without them, my time here would not be complete.” Sooner or later, however, the club will win the premier class, Guardiola believes.

Meanwhile, Messi's opponent in the final and team-mate at Paris Saint-Germain, Kylian Mbappé, is back on the pitch.

PSG announced on Twitter on Wednesday that the World Cup returnee was back in training.

"It's getting better, better, better," the newspaper "Le Parisien" quoted the striker, who turned 24 on Tuesday, when he arrived at training.

At the same time, the video of a fiery half-time speech by Mbappé at the lost World Cup final caused a sensation.

"We couldn't do worse than we've done before," the striker said in the video.

"It's the game of a lifetime." The scene is part of a documentary by French broadcaster TF1 that first aired late Tuesday night.

"When we return to the field, we either let them play like stupid, or we give it a bit of intensity, go into the duels, do it differently, boys," Mbappé can be heard in the video.

France coach Didier Deschamps also addressed his team in clear words at half-time last Sunday, as the documentation shows.

"Do you know what the difference is?

They're playing a damn World Cup final and we, we're not playing it."

France put on a spectacular comeback in the final in Qatar.

Argentina led 2-0 after the first half, Mbappé then shot the Bleus to level and into extra time.

Mbappé also scored the equalizer again in injury time to make it 3-3.

Argentina ultimately won 4-2 on penalties, although the attacker also converted his third attempt from the spot there.