Lionel Messi ‘agreed to join Chelsea in stunning £225m move in 2014’
Lionel Messi was on the brink of joining Chelsea in stunning £225m move in 2014 after Jose Mourinho wooed him over FaceTime – and Roman Abramovich was ready to pay him £50m a year AFTER TAX to leave Barcelona, new book claims
- Barcelona star Lionel Messi wanted to play for Chelsea in the summer of 2014
- Earlier that year, he had been wooed after a FaceTime call with Jose Mourinho
- Personal terms had been agreed between Messi and the Stamford Bridge outift
- However, it collapsed after his father and agent Jorge found out about this
- Messi senior had been informed by Deco after the pair were left out of talks
Lionel Messi may have come close to joining Manchester City this summer but it’s not the first time the Barcelona talisman has been on the verge of a move to the Premier League.
According to Sky in Italy’s Gianluca Di Marzio, the Argentine superstar was on the cusp of becoming a Chelsea player in 2014.
The fee would have been a world-record £225million transfer – Messi’s buyout clause at the time – with Messi, Blues owner Roman Abramovich and then-manager Jose Mourinho keen for the deal to go through. He would have also earned £50m per season plus 70 per cent of image rights had the move not collapsed.
Barcelona legend Lionel Messi was close to becoming a Chelsea player in 2014, claim reports
Messi (pictured in 2014) wanted to leave Barcelona after a FaceTime call with Jose Mourinho
Mourinho, then Chelsea manager, impressed Messi with the forward then intent on joining him
Chelsea’s move for Messi features in Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio’s new book, Grand Hotel Calciomercato
In his latest book Grand Hotel Calciomercato, a diary of the untold stories of the transfer market, Di Marzio also claims that Real Madrid tried the same ploy in 2013 but they were quickly dismissed by Messi out of his loyalty to their eternal rivals Barca.
It is reported that contact between Messi and Chelsea first began in January 2014 as the former was in the midst of a tax fraud probe. Frustrated with the Spanish authorities he sought a new life in London with the lure of playing under Mourinho to boot.
After speaking with several intermediaries as well as former Barca team-mate Deco, now an agent – who also had played at Chelsea, a meeting was set up with Messi and Mourinho via a FaceTime call.
That reported encounter went well with Messi telling his camp afterwards ‘With Mourinho, for how he’s spoken to me, I can win whatever I want: he’s a winner, go ahead and close the deal.’
Messi would have earned £50m per season plus 70 per cent of image rights at Stamford Bridge
Later that summer, Chelsea did business with Barcelona in the shape of signing Cesc Fabregas. And Di Marizo reports that it was a chat with Fabregas during one July pre-season session that saw the move break down between Messi and the…
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