"You are the best" - When PSG superstar Kylian Mbappe congratulated Lionel Messi on winning The Best FIFA Men's Player award

Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) forward Kylian Mbappe congratulated Lionel Messi after winning The Best FIFA Men's Player award via Instagram in February earlier this year. The Frenchman hailed his PSG teammate Messi as the best in the world after the latter won his second award in four years.

Messi was named FIFA The Best Men's Player of the Year at the ceremony, while Mbappe was named in the FIFAPRO World XI alongside the Argentine. After the ceremony, he put up an Instagram post:

The caption read:

“Another trophy at home. Big congratulations to @leomessi you are #TheBest.”

This was the first instance of Mbappe terming Messi as the best in the world. Earlier, he was believed to be a Cristiano Ronaldo and Real Madrid fan.

Nevertheless, Messi and Mbappe have had a phenomenal year with PSG and their respective national sides Argentina and France. They both won the Ligue 1 title with the club with Mbappe picking up his fourth consecutive Golden Boot scoring 28 goals.

Messi spearheaded Argentina to a historic World Cup win after 36 years winning his second Golden Ball in the process. He scored seven goals and gave three assists, including scoring a brace in the final.

Mbappe dazzled in Qatar continuing his incredible form, scoring eight goals and winning the Golden Boot. He became the only player after Geoff Hurst in '66 to score a hat-trick in a World Cup final, but incredibly ended up on the losing side.

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Despite congratulating Lionel Messi on his latest award win, Mbappe has been a Cristiano Ronaldo fan for quite some time. His father and a former teammate have both commented on the matter, claiming Ronaldo was the France international's idol.

Speaking in 2016, Mbappe's father said (via Mirror):

"He [Mbappe] is a Real Madrid fan and his idol is Cristiano Ronaldo. He used to spend hours watching videos [of Ronaldo] on the internet."

Mbappe’s former teammate Abdou Diallo also had a say on the matter in December last year. He said:

"Cristiano Ronaldo is literally everything to Kylian Mbappe. If you mention Lionel Messi against Cristiano, Mbappe will debate with you for at least an hour. For him, Cristiano is untouchable."

Mbappe has faced off against his idol four times in his career. He met Ronaldo in the 2017-18 Champions League Round of 16 stage for PSG and ended up losing 5-2 on aggregate. He played against the Portuguese icon twice for France, both ending in draws. Ronaldo has scored five goals in these encounters while Mbappe has scored none.

Meanwhile, the French superstar has played 65 games with Lionel Messi, and jointly participated in goal with him on 33 occasions.