Ahead of Tottenham’s showdown against Barcelona, Mauricio Pochettino revealed how Lionel Messi almost joined him at Espanyol.
Messi was very early in his career at the time while Pochettino was in the autumn of his career
The year was 2005 and Messi had just impressed against Juventus in the Joan Gamper Trophy.
“I started to hear about him when I was at Espanyol – a small guy playing in the academy in Barcelona,” Pochettino said at a press conference
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“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 afterwards 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.”
Interestingly, Messi’s Barcelona debut came against Pochettino’s Espanyol which the Catalans won 1-0. Pochettino said that he found it hard to remember the debut of the Argentine, however, as he was just one of Barcelona’s youngsters in his eyes at the time.
“When Messi made his debut, it was like another youngster that had arrived to the Barcelona team from the academy – like it was Xavi or [Andres] Iniesta or Ivan de la Pena,” he said.
“Actually, no. When De la Pena started to play for Barcelona [in 1995], there was an explosion of excitement.
“I always remember Ronaldo saying he was the best player that he saw in his life and he played with.”