Monaco midfielder has known Messi for 20 years and was a teammate at
Barcelona but will play against him in Ligue 1
![Cesc Fàbregas: ‘The boys are excited that they will be playing Lionel Messi’](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/bdc2bd422d6bfadcaa7aaeb54a13f9f086d6d603/113_138_4404_2643/master/4404.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=edd99b959234fcc2f62f32e35f3e6550)
As a boyhood Barcelona fan and Monaco man Cesc Fàbregas has ample reason to fear the ramifications of Lionel Messi’s seismic shift to
Paris Saint-Germain. The ripple effects of Messi’s every move, however, are not lost on a friend and former teammate still processing the astonishing events of the past seven days.
“For
France and Ligue 1 this is another dimension,” admits Fàbregas, who was 13 when he first encountered the great Argentinian trialling for Barcelona. Their friendship survives 21 years on.