The day Lionel Messi met Juan Román Riquelme | OneFootball

Josep Maria Minguella is the agent that brought Lionel Messi, Diego Maradona, and Hristo Stoichkov to Barcelona.

Minguella opened up to Catalan newspaper Sport and spoke about Messi’s deep admiration for Argentine legend Juan Román Riquelme.

“Sometimes he would come to my home when we had a barbecue,” Minguella said, “I remember one of those barbecues.

“Riquelme, Fábio Rochemback, Thiago Motta, and some other players were all there. We did it in the late afternoon. I could see Messi sitting at the back of a table. From there he looked beneath that famous hair at Riquelme. Messi looked at Riquelme as if he were Jesus Christ,” said Minguella.

“For Messi, Riquelme was the ’10’, left-footed, played in the first-team of Barca and was his great idol. But he only looked at him because Leo was very quiet and it was difficult for him to converse with his idol,” he added.

Curiously, Messi and Riquelme played together years later with the Albiceleste at the 2006 World Cup in Germany.