On Tuesday, Tottenham will welcome Barcelona to the Wembley Stadium in a highly-anticipated Champions League clash. The north London outfit will go to war with a number of talented stars, but one in particular strikes fear in the heart of many, and he is Lionel Messi.
The Argentine is a legend of this game and will be a huge goalscoring threat for the Blaugrana, but according to the Spurs manager, the 31-year-old could have been playing for another Catalan side. According to Mauricio Pochettino, La Pulga came very close to joining Espanyol.
As per the Guardian, the Tottenham boss talked in length about the five-time Ballon d'Or winner. Having played for and then managed Barcelona's Catalan rival during Leo's rise to fame, Pochettino witnessed Messi first-hand in La Liga. However, the Argentine tactician claims that things could have turned out different, as they came close to being team-mates.
This occurred during the summer of 2005. Leo was a promising talent at that time but was not the first-team star that he is today. The attacker was aiming for more playing time at the Camp Nou, but the club ran into legal issues due to his nationality.
The Spanish giant had already met the quota for foreign players, which is three, with Rafa Márquez, Ronaldinho and Samuel Eto'o occupying those spots. This means there was no room for Messi, an Argentine national, which led to the suggestion of loaning him until Barcelona could find a way around this rule.
A season-long loan at Espanyol was thus brought up. While the Blaugrana knew the talented South American would become a star of the future and was unlikely to have considered selling him, Pochettino argues that had Messi joined the Periquitos back then, the RCDE Stadium side could have been the dominant club in Catalonia and Spain.
"I started to hear about him when I was at Espanyol – a small guy playing in the academy in Barcelona," Pochettino said ahead of Tottenham vs Barcelona.
"He arrived when he was 13 years old, going from Argentina to Barcelona. Then I heard he was so close to signing for Espanyol – very close – in the season Barcelona played against Juventus under [Fabio] Capello in the Joan Gamper Cup.
"Because he was so fantastic in the Joan Gamper, Capello praised him afterward and they changed the decision and kept Messi at Barcelona.
"So if you look back in history, maybe if he didn't play in the Joan Gamper that summer, maybe today he could have been the biggest star in Espanyol and Espanyol could be Barcelona.
"We would have been team-mates, and maybe I would have still been in Espanyol managing him."
Of course, Espanyol wasn't the only side interested in Leo. Fabio Capello famously asked Rijkaard to loan him Messi in that Joan Gamper Cup encounter between Juventus and Barcelona. Inter Milan was also keen on the Argentine.
However, he ended up staying at Camp Nou and the rest is history. He went on to become the greatest player at the club, in La Liga history, and in football in the eyes of many. On Wednesday, he might just saw Pochettino what Espanyol missed out on.
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