Messi on Paredes’ Boca return: Made a big impact, steadied team | OneFootball

Leandro Paredes “gave Boca a huge change.” The phrase is already common in the halls of La Bombonera, among the fans, and in the sports world outside of Xeneize, but if those words are spoken by Lionel Messi, they take on a different meaning. The captain of the Argentina National Team evaluated his “friend’s” return to Xeneize, said he follows him closely, and did nothing but heap praise on how he transformed and “organized the team.”

“Boca became very strong, especially at home, and a big part of that is because of him: because of the style of play he brings, he knew how to organize the team on the pitch,” analyzed La Pulga, in a conversation with ESPN, reflecting on the six-game winning streak under Claudio Úbeda.

In addition to that major influence of Paredes on the field, being the master and commander of Boca’s game, another aspect that Messi himself highlighted, because “I’ve talked about it with him,” is the value he brought to his beloved club “at the group level.” “They get along very well and that also shows. When tough times come, it’s also important to be like that,” added the best player in the world.

You can see it day to day at Boca Predio, but also beyond the walls surrounding the Ezeiza training center: the midfielder himself revealed that he gathers the group once a week at his house to have barbecues and foster unity among his teammates, precisely an aspect that has been repeatedly praised by Exequiel Zeballos, Agustín Marchesín, and Ayrton Costa—among others.

“Honestly, I’m happy, because he’s a guy who is a friend, I care about him a lot, I shared a team with him. I know he really wanted to come back to Boca; and that things are going well for him, even better,” Messi concluded, referring to Paredes and his return to Argentine football after years in the Old Continent, where they even shared the field at PSG.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.