Antoine Griezmann heaps praise on Lionel Messi after Barcelona's win over Athletic Bilbao

Antoine Griezmann has heaped praise on Lionel Messi after Barcelona's 2-1 win over Athletic Bilbao on Sunday. The Frenchman stated that the Argentine is a legend and that the whole team is enjoying playing with him.

Reports have suggested that Lionel Messi and Antoine Griezmann do not get along in the dressing room. Some stats even backed the claims as the two players never seem to pass to each other despite playing together in the attack.

After the Blaugrana's win over Athletic Bilbao, Antoine Griezmann talked to the media about Lionel Messi and said:

"We are enjoying Messi, he's a legend. Hopefully, we can keep enjoying him and he can keep helping us win. He's doing very well, he's taking care of himself and working really hard off the pitch.

Barcelona are slowly climbing up the La Liga table and are now level on points with second-placed Real Madrid. Talking about the club's objectives for the year, Griezmann said:

"There's a lot of games still be played. Our objective is to win as many games as we can between now and the end of the season. We know that Athletic are a team that press well, but I think we deserved the three points. We are winning games, since the turn of the year. We've been on a good run. We are just going to keep on fighting till the end."

Lionel Messi's Barcelona future still in doubts

Lionel Messi's contract at Barcelona ends in June, and his future still hangs in the balance. He was looking to leave the Catalan giants last summer but then-club president Josep Maria Bartomeu made it difficult for the forward to leave.

The Argentine made it clear in an interview to Goal that he was interested in leaving Camp Nou.

Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City have shown interest in signing Lionel Messi when his contract expires in the summer.

Some reports suggested that the Manchester giants were confident of getting Messi to the Etihad last summer, but things did not materialise.

Meanwhile, PSG have openly confirmed their interest and are reportedly looking to use Neymar's friendship to lure Messi to Paris.