Lionel Messi: Spains secret bid to steal Argentina icon revealed by former youth coach

Spain launched a quiet but determined campaign to convince a teenage Lionel Messi to play for La Roja instead of Argentina, a former national youth coordinator has revealed.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper AS, former Spain youth national teams coordinator Gines Melendez detailed how he and several Barcelona academy players – including Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas – tried to persuade Messi to commit to Spain before he ever wore the Argentina shirt.

Melendez said the approach began when Messi was still a youth player at Barcelona’s famed La Masia academy, with key figures inside the club encouraging the Spanish federation to move swiftly.

Inside Spain’s push for Messi

“We tried to get him to play with us because I have a friend in Barcelona called Alex Garcia, and he was Messi’s coach in the youth ranks,” Melendez explained.

“He always told me that we had to convince the Argentine player to play with Spain.”

Messi, born in 1987, came through the same youth generation as Pique and Fabregas, both of whom went on to become World Cup and European Championship winners with Spain.

Melendez said that at youth level he had “between seven or eight Barcelona players” in his Spanish age-group squads – and that all of them played a part in trying to sway Messi.

“He belongs to the 1987 generation, the same as Pique and Fabregas,” he said. “I had in the Spain youth team between seven or eight Barcelona players from that age group, and all of them tried to convince Messi to join Spain.”

Pique and Fabregas ‘did put pressure’ on Messi

Asked directly whether Pique and Fabregas had actively tried to influence Messi’s decision, Melendez was unequivocal.

“Yes, they were from the same generation,” he replied. “When Messi was 13 years old, I wanted him to play with me. And Alex Garcia was very enthusiastic about the idea of convincing him.”

Messi moved to Barcelona from Argentina as a 13-year-old, and it was during those early teenage years that Spain saw a potential opportunity to naturalise him and bring him into their national-team system.

Melendez says the efforts did not stop after that first attempt.

‘Please, you have to play with us’

The former youth coordinator recalled speaking to Messi again a year later, during a national youth tournament in Spain.

“During the Spanish youth championship that was held in Albacete, I spoke to him again when he was 14 years old and I told him: ‘Please, you have to play with us’,” Melendez said.

Despite the efforts of Melendez, his coaching contacts and a core of young Barcelona stars, Messi ultimately chose to represent the country of his birth.

Argentina capped him at youth level and then at senior level, closing the door on any possibility of him ever playing for Spain.

What might have been for Spain

FIFA rules allow players with multiple national eligibilities to choose their allegiance provided they have not played a competitive senior international for another country. At the time, Messi – an Argentine by birth who had moved to Spain as a minor – could technically have qualified to represent Spain.

Instead, he went on to become Argentina’s all-time leading scorer, captaining them to the 2022 World Cup and the 2021 Copa America titles, while winning a record eight Ballon d’Or awards at club level.

Melendez’s account underlines how close Spain believed they might have been to adding Messi to a golden generation that would later win the 2010 World Cup and back-to-back European Championships in 2008 and 2012.

Had their campaign succeeded, Messi could have lined up alongside Pique, Fabregas, Xavi and Andres Iniesta for Spain – a hypothetical scenario that remains one of international football’s greatest “what ifs”.