How Lionel Messi almost became an Espanyol legend, according to Mauricio Pochettino

History was made on October 16th, 2004.

A teenager by the name of Lionel Messi made the first of his 778 appearances for Barcelona.

He was introduced in the closing minutes of the Catalan derby against their fierce city rivals Espanyol, coming on in place of the match-winner Deco.

Twenty-one years, eight Ballons d’Or, over 800 goals and almost 400 assists later, that day can be remembered as the start of something special.

But things could have been so different, according to USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino, who was on the opposing side. Messi might have been playing alongside him.

“I remember that summer, he was so close to moving to Espanyol,” Pochettino told reporters, ahead of facing Messi’s Barcelona back when he was in charge of Tottenham in 2018.

“If he did, maybe he could have been the biggest star in Espanyol. We should be the Barcelona! He would have been my team-mate and maybe I would still be in Espanyol managing him.”

Messi only played a peripheral role that debut season at Barcelona. He only made a further six appearances, all of them from the bench, in the league that season.

He clocked fewer than 90 minutes of action in the 2004-05 La Liga title victory under Frank Rijkaard. Given that, it’s perfectly conceivable that Barcelona were weighing up whether to send him out on loan the following year.

The Argentine’s first season on the fringes did give us his iconic first goal for the club, ecstatically celebrated alongside Ronaldinho, but it was only in the summer that he really began to turn heads as a superstar in the making.

He was the top scorer and best player as Argentina won the Under-20 World Cup, and he returned to pre-season looking more than ready to make a real impact in Rijkaard’s first team.

“I’d started to hear about Messi when I was an Espanyol player – this small guy playing in the Barcelona academy, who had arrived from Argentina when he was 13,” Pochettino added.

“And then I heard he was very close to signing for Espanyol. But because he was so fantastic in the Joan Gamper against Juventus and Fabio Capello praised him afterwards in the press conference, Barcelona changed their minds. They kept Messi at Barcelona.”

Messi’s performance in Barcelona’s traditional curtain-raiser Joan Gamper trophy friendly match has become the stuff of legend.

“I’ve never seen a player with so much quality at that age and with such personality, wearing such an important shirt,” Capello said at the time.

“He can do what he likes with the ball. I am pleased that a boy so young does something so beautiful for football.”

Espanyol weren’t the only club interested in Messi’s services for the 2004-05 campaign.

“It’s completely true that I asked Rijkaard if he would loan me Messi for Juventus,” Capello recalled years later.

“When the play had stopped for a minute I went over to Rijkaard and said: ‘You can’t play him because you’ve got three foreigners already. Why don’t you let me have him for a year?'”

Rijkaard made sure there was room for Messi, and the rest is history.

QUIZ: Can you name Barcelona’s XI from Lionel Messi’s La Liga debut in 2004?

“I am not going to try to find a solution against Messi; I think that’s impossible,” Pochettino added ahead of their 2018 clash.

“It’s only to enjoy it. More than worrying you, it needs to excite you.

“I played against Maradona and Ronaldo and, for your ego, it’s a thing that you are going to tell your kids and grandkids. So enjoy it, stay close and try to play in the opposite half; push Leo to play far from your goal. Because if not, it’s terrible.”

It was indeed terrible for Pochettino’s Spurs, who lost 4-2 at Wembley.

Messi ran rampant that night, scoring twice, denied another two by the woodwork, and given a perfect 10 rating from WhoScored.

Fate conspired for Pochettino to eventually link up with his Argentinian compatriot, signing him for PSG back in 2021.

“I didn’t think it was possible [that he would sign for us], and when an opportunity appears and everything goes so fast, you can’t immediately process it,” he said at the time.

“However, there’s that connection: we both are Argentinian, we both support Newell’s [Old Boys], we both come from Rosario. I have also admired him for a long time when facing him as an opponent, so having him now training with us is really nice.”

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