Florentino Perez, the president of Real Madrid, recently discussed a time when he might have considered recruiting Lionel Messi.

He revealed that if he had attempted to bring Messi to the club, it would have been during his first tenure as president in the 2000s.

“I might have tried to sign Messi, but only during my first term as president of Real Madrid,” Perez said. At that time, Perez aimed to rebuild the team by acquiring the biggest football stars, which led to the creation of the legendary “Galacticos” team, featuring icons like Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo Nazario, Beckham, and Owen.

Perez explained that bringing Messi to Real Madrid would have been possible only in this specific context, before the Argentine became a cornerstone of FC Barcelona. “Later, it would have been impossible. He had been at Barcelona since he was very young, and that’s where he grew up. It’s very difficult under those circumstances,” Perez acknowledged.

He also pointed out that, in the 2000s, Messi was not yet a global star: “No one knew Messi at that time. In 2000, the players who were making headlines were Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, Beckham, and others. That was the peak of football, as Mourinho would say.”

Thus, Perez confirmed that while the possibility of signing Messi was there, it was only within the very specific context of that period when Messi had yet to make his global mark.