Former Manchester City boss admits club tried to sign Lionel Messi from Barcelona immediately after Sheikh Mansour's takeover
Former Manchester City manager Mark Hughes has admitted that the Cityzens tried to sign Lionel Messi from Barcelona over 15 years ago.
Sheikh Mansour became the majority owner of the club on 4 August 2008, making them one of the richest sporting teams in Europe at the time. As per Hughes, it led to the club making bids for a host of superstars, including Messi and Robinho.
Talking about a particular day in the 2008 summer transfer window, the Welshman said on Footy Accumulators’ podcast, 'No Tippy Tappy Football':
"They [new owners] just asked me, ‘who do you want?’. They had a load of bids out for pretty much every top player in the world. They had just put all of these bids out to see if anyone would actually come back, but people forget that at that time, Man City were a mid-table Premier League club – mid-table to bottom if we’re honest...
"...“It was a crazy day, there were bids going out for Lionel Messi and all sorts! We finally managed to get Robinho over the line which was a hell of a statement, and the rest is history."
Manchester City signed Robinho, who was then a full international for Brazil and a superstar at Real Madrid, for £32.5 million in September 2008. Lionel Messi, however, didn't move to the Etihad, staying at Barcelona for another 13 years before leaving as a free agent for Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
Hughes, meanwhile, was sacked as City's manager in December 2009 after around 18 months at the helm. He failed to win any trophy at the club during that stint.
Barcelona legend Lionel Messi reportedly wanted Manchester City move in 2020
According to Marti Perarnau's new book, 'God Save Pep' (h/t GOAL), Lionel Messi wanted to leave Barcelona in the summer of 2020 and held talks to potentially join Manchester City.
Messi apparently held face-to-face talks with Guardiola over a move to the Etihad, with Sergio Aguero also playing a role in negotiations. The eight-time Ballon d'Or winner was supposedly informed about the tough training regime and differences in weather, but he was adamant that he wanted to join the Sky Blues.
However, no deal materialized. Barcelona reportedly stayed adamant that they wanted the player's release clause to be paid in full, which was €700 million at the time.
Barca ultimately lost him for nothing a year later, just a few weeks after Aguero left Manchester City to join the Catalan giants.