Perhaps one of the greatest careers of all time could have gone very differently…
Lionel Messi (35) and FC Barcelona – this partnership was THE dream marriage in the football world for 17 years. From his senior debut in October 2004 to May 2021, Messi won 35 titles with the club, including 4 Champions Leagues, 10 Spanish Championships and 7 Copa del Rey.
In August 2021, the marriage was divorced with great tears. Since then, Messi has been under contract with Paris Saint-Germain and is still waiting for great luck in the city of love.
But the love affair between Messi and Barcelona could have been very different. The Scottish cult club Glasgow Rangers, for example, had a strong interest in signing Messi shortly before he made his breakthrough with the Catalans.
As former Rangers coach Alex McLeish (63) already revealed in the podcast “The Big Interview” in 2017, his son drew his attention to Messi.
“My son Jon became interested in ‘Championship Manager’ (a soccer manager game ed.). He kept telling me names from South America. They came out of the blue and he said: ‘Lionel Messi will be the best player in the world’.” Back then, when Messi was still 13 years old and an Argentine youth player in FC Barcelona’s youth academy, he didn’t have the words of his son.
But that would change three years later when Barry Ferguson (now 44) joined Blackburn Rovers in 2003. McLeish was then looking for reinforcements in midfield.
“We lost a player who would have won the ball in any stadium in the world. We needed a player like that again,” said McLeish, recalling the conversation he had with his son.
McLeish wanted to lure Messi to Rangers. His assistant coach Jan Wouters (61) should get in touch with Henk ten Cate (67), the assistant to then Barca coach Frank Rijkaard (59), and ask about Messi.
“They talked about loaning Messi out, but ten Cate said Messi was probably too young and frail to benefit from Scottish football,” reveals McLeish in Graham Hunter’s book Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World.
Towards the end of the 2004/05 season, Rangers finally made a formal request, “but Messi played brilliantly at the World Youth Championship and Barcelona were sure they wouldn’t loan him out,” McLeish said.
At the 2005 U-20 World Cup, Messi scored six goals to become top scorer. He was voted the best player of the tournament. two penalties against Nigeria.
McLeish on podcast: “We were told we didn’t stand a chance”.
Instead, the Rangers were made aware of the young Andres Iniesta (37) by ten Cate, who was also still waiting for his breakthrough at FC Barcelona at the time. But after he scored a goal in preparation for the 2005/2006 season, this transfer also fell through.
The rest is history. All the titles that Messi won with Barcelona until 2018 he won together with Iniesta, before he then moved to Vissel Kobe in Japan.
