Real Madrid Almost Signed Lionel Messi 17 Years Ago!!
Jun 25, 2017 at 10:28 AM
Lionel Messi is easily one of the best players to have ever played the game and though his Barcelona side were not able to win the league or the Champions League last season, Messi was at his best for most of the campaign.
The Argentine star joined the Catalan giants back in 2001 as a 13-year old and has gone on to break most records for the club and the domestic league in Spain, to stand as a genuine superstar.
He joined Barcelona from Argentina outfit Newell’s Old Boys and made his way through the ranks at the club, resisting interests from the biggest clubs in Europe for a move in the last decade and more.
Image Credit: Mirror
He has more than 380 La Liga appearances in his career, all in a Barcelona shirt, but it could have all been very different, claims Lionel Messi’s former agent.
The Barcelona hitman has won eight La Liga titles, four Champions League trophies and five Ballon d’Or gongs in his time at the Camp Nou, but Horacio Gaggioli, the player’s agent before he moved to Barcelona has now revealed that he could have easily joined Barcelona’s arch rivals Real Madrid at that time.
Messi celebrated his 30th Birthday on the 24 of this month and Gaggioli opened up about a few things in Messi’s life that has caught the attention of many of the fans.
Speaking to Globoesporte (via Mirror) in a recent interview, Gaggioli revealed that it was his decision to live in Barcelona that allowed Messi to take a trail at the La Masia.
“Due to life circumstances, I went to live in Barcelona and I brought him to Barca for a trial. But I was about to live in Madrid,” Gaggioli told Globoesporte .
Image Credit: Mirror
“If that had happened, I would have taken him to Madrid for a trial. That’s life, those are the details.
“Today, Messi could have been a Real Madrid player, of course.
“The family wanted to come to Spain, to the city where I was to have some support,” he added.
Messi went on to score 507 league goals in his 17 years at the club and is one of the greatest ever to play the game. But surely, everything could have been different all those 17-years ago.