Messi: You need the best to win the Champions League... and Griezmann is!

From Argentina's camp in Barcelona, as he prepared for the World Cup, Lionel Messi sat down to talk exclusively with SPORT. 

After Madrid won the Champions League and Barcelona, there's been a debate about who had the better season. What do you think? 

We had a great year with the double. It's true that the Champions League excited everyone because of what it means to win it. But there's no need to take anything away from what we have done. Winning La Liga and the Champions League are different things. Barça's year was spectacular. We lost three games all season and infortunately one of them knocked us out of the most exciting competition. The double is really good. 

Would you change it for the Champions League? 

No. Winning La Liga and the Copa is really important. It's not easy. Like I said, despite what happened in the Champions League, the season was really good. 

You've won four Champions Leagues and Madrid have won four in five years. Some say that winning just one in the last seven years with the generation of players at Barça is not enough. Do you agree? 

Yes. The truth is we would like to have won more Champions League, above all in the last three years. 

Quarterfinal knockouts... 

Getting knocked out at that stage of the competition can't happen to us, especially how it happened this time, with the first leg lead we had (4-1). That made the elimination even more painful and it was viewed as being even worse because of how it happened. 

Did you watch the final in Kiev? 

Just bits, to be honest. Not because I didn't want to but because we were in Argentina and the time isn't the same. I saw the highlights and everything that happened. 

As Jordi Alba says, do you always want Madrid to lose? 

I want to win. What the other teams do doesn't interest me. As a Barcelona player, and when we're not [left] in a competition, I never want our main rival to win. But, first of all, I want to win myself. 

What did you think of Zidane's exit? 

I was surprised. Really surprised. I didn't expect it. I suppose no one did. He will have his reasons. It's also good to know when to leave. No one can reproach him. I don't know why he left... 

THE FUTURE 

As one of the captains, what signings do you think Barça need this summer? 

I'm not the person to say who needs to come in. There are people who take care of that. Last year was a great year. We only lost three games. I repeat, it was strange for how we went into the season and it was strange to lose that game in Rome. 

Is Antoine Griezmann what's needed at the club? 

I don't know if he's the priority. I am in agreement that to win the Champions League again we need to have the best players. And Griezmann is one of them. If the club sign him, brilliant. I don't know if he's the priority. That depends on the signing committee and the coach. I can only say that to win the Champions League you have to have the best players. And he is very good.