When money couldn’t make the difference: Messi’s response to a €500 million offer

Former Inter president Massimo Moratti has spoken about the steps he took in 2012 to sign Barcelona forward Lionel Messi.

TodayPress TV reports that he discussed the matter in an interview with Sport.es.

The former club president said he made an extraordinary offer for the Argentine star. Moratti recalled those days:

“In 2012, I did something crazy. I sent Messi an offer worth €500 million. At the time, it was an unimaginable amount of money. I sent my vice-president to Barcelona to negotiate. But Messi never even opened the letter containing the offer and had no idea how much money had been offered. He rejected it without even looking at the details because he saw himself as a player who would never be sold to another club during his career.

Later, I was able to contact Messi personally. He told me: ‘I appreciate your interest in me, but I want to finish my career at Barcelona.’ His answer was that simple. He wanted to stay at Barcelona. I understood the situation, but I tried to tempt him with money — and it did not work.”

Namiq HUN