Lionel Messi to PSG: Pochettino claims this would be his second attempt to sign Lionel Messi as a manager | OneFootball

Every manager will have a story about how a superstar almost signed for them when they are younger, but the connection between Lionel Messi and Mauricio Pochettino is an interesting one.

A report from Goal has suggested that the PSG manager has actually tried to sign Messi before in his career, but clearly there’s no chance that Messi in his prime was ever going to move to Southampton or Spurs.

It actually turns out that he tried to take him on loan to Espanyol which would’ve been back between 2009-2012, but it’s worth noting that Messi was a first team regular at Barca and he was scoring well over a goal a game at that point so it doesn’t really seem to fit.

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There’s also the small matter of the intense rivalry between the clubs which would make a move like that even more unlikely, but he should have a better chance of signing him for PSG this summer.

Despite their wealthy backing Goal do go on to suggest that even PSG are struggling to put a package together to meet Messi’s demands, so there’s every chance that he would need to take a pay cut if he does move on.

It sounds like his Barcelona future is dependent on Joan Laporta winning the upcoming Presidential election and doing enough to convince him to stay in Spain, so his future is still as unclear as it has been all season.