Gerrard Pique, a former Barcelona defender, revealed how close Arsenal came to acquiring Lionel Messi.
Arsenal were interested in signing Lionel Messi according to claims by Gerrard Pique (Image: Photo by Daniel Jayo/Getty Images)
According to Gerard Pique, Arsenal had “no chance” of signing Lionel Messi. In 2003, the Gunners acquired Cesc Fabregas, a midfielder, from Barcelona’s youth team.
Before moving back to the Catalan capital in August 2011, the Spaniard spent eight years in north London, making over 300 appearances for Arsenal. Furthermore, Pique, a former Barcelona defender and Spain international, asserted that the Gunners weren’t just attempting to sign Fabregas as a La Masia prodigy.
He says that legendary Argentine forward Messi and he were both targets for former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. He said to the BBC’s Euro Leagues Podcast, “Arsene came to sign me at that time, the summer before I left to join Manchester United.”
Arsenal already had Cesc, so they didn’t want to start a major altercation with Barcelona at that point.
They appeared to be attempting to work out a deal with Barcelona, but it took longer than we had anticipated. I made the decision to go to Manchester United after they said, “Listen, we want you so let’s take a decision right now.”
It’s also true that, in my opinion, Arsene later attempted to sign Messi as well, but he was unsuccessful. The upside of that is that we all returned to play for Barcelona’s first team.”
One of the best football players to have ever played is Messi. Over the course of a stellar career that has included four Champions League trophies and a 2022 World Cup victory, the 36-year-old has scored over 700 goals.
In Europe, the Argentine was also a constant source of frustration for the Gunners. In a quarterfinal second-leg match at the Nou Camp in April 2010, Messi famously scored four goals against Arsenal.
