Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquets have gone on to establish a legacy of their own at Barcelona. While one has left as the team’s highest goalscorer, the other continues to serve the team and has played more than 700 games across all competitions.
The story, however, could have been extremely different if Real Madrid had pounced upon the opportunity to sign the Barcelona duo early in their career.
Manolo Romero, a former Real Madrid scout in Catalonia, has made a massive revelation, claiming that Messi’s entourages established contacts with Real Madrid as well when they were in talks with Barcelona.
Romero explained the entire picture where he disclosed the distress Messi’s father had during the time. He said that the attacker’s father was worried as he thought Barcelona would not give him the opportunity.
This is why he asked Romero to establish contacts with Real Madrid. “A representative offered Messi to Real Madrid,” Romero told SER Catalunya (h/t Mundo Deportivo).
“Leo was sitting in my car. Horacio Gaggioli, who was driving a youthful Messi at the time, we were watching a game at the Premia field.
Gaggioli told us that Leo’s father ‘is very upset because he believes that they are not going to give him the opportunity… Would you take us to Madrid?’ [asked his father]’. Don’t tell me twice, right now I’m calling the bosses,” he added.
The story dates back to the time when a certain Vincent del Bosque had Madrid’s reigns. The move did not go through for some reason, but it is exciting to even know that Messi could well and truly have played for Real Madrid and not Barcelona for the most part of his career.
“I called the bosses. Leo was in my car when they were talking with the ‘bosses’ of Madrid. Horacio said ‘hey, what about Figo?’ That was an electoral issue, but you know that Madrid and Barça bark at each other but don’t bite each other,” he added.
Meanwhile, Sergio Busquets is another Barcelona player whose destiny took a turn for the good. As Romero quotes, when Barcelona made contact with Busquets, the midfielder was playing for a local side UFB Jabac Terrassa.
Jabac had some kind of an agreement with Barcelona over the acquisition of their prospects, but as it turns out, Busquets’ representatives did not believe he would have the desirable projection at Barcelona, hence an approach to Real Madrid was made.
“At that time there was a fax for him to sign for Madrid, but when Barça found out, they reacted,” Romero revealed.
For what it’s worth, the careers of both Messi and Busquets have gone on to become the sheer examples of professionalism. The two are simply the finest players in their positions and it is going to take a lot for anyone at Barcelona to break their numbers.