Lionel Messi could have signed for Chelsea in the summer after adidas offered to pay half of his
£210million buy-out clause, according to Barcelona sports paper Mundo Deportivo.
Messi,
who joined Barcelona as a 13-year-old after the club paid for expensive
hormone therapy treatment without which he would never have made the
grade as a professional, has always had a strong emotional bond with the
club.
But according to
Mundo Deportivo, adidas saw the opportunity to prise him away from
Barca – and effectively from Nike who sponsor the Catalan giants – and
move him to one of their three main European clubs: Chelsea, Bayern
Munich or Real Madrid.
The pro-Barcelona daily says that
Messi’s representatives were made aware of adidas’ proposal and that
they then informed the club, who were also told Messi had no intention
of leaving the club.Even if
adidas had stumped up the £105m, Chelsea would still have had to find
the other £105m and manager Jose Mourinho would have had to convince a
player with whom he has never had a very good relationship that the two
could work together.
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