Lionel Messi is undoubtedly the greatest player ever to grace the sport and has recently received the ‘TIME’s 2023 Athlete of the Year’ honor. Messi spent a remarkable stint at Barcelona, where he etched his name as the best player in the history of the Catalan giants.
La Pulga, who ranks as the Blaugrana’s all-time top scorer and has made the most appearances for the club, led his side to countless titles and trophies. His exceptional skills at Barcelona under the supervision of Pep Guardiola once caught the eye of Manchester City’s new owners in 2008.
Manchester City’s bold move to acquire Messi
The Premier League giants, Manchester City, are experiencing the most successful time in their club’s history, winning the highly coveted treble last season. Achieving successive league titles led them to acclaim the title of ‘Club of the Year’ at the Ballon d’Or 2023 Gala.
However, this was not always the case. Their rise to the top initiated when the Abu Dhabi United Group consortium takeover changed the fortunes of the club.
Recently, former Manchester City manager Mark Hughes revealed that the club attempted to sign some big stars from across Europe, and one of their targets was to secure Lionel Messi’s signature while he was delivering excellence at Barcelona.
In Footy Accumulators’ Podcast ‘No Tippy Tappy Football’, Hughes even disclosed that the club had made an audacious proposal for the Argentine.
He said, “They [new owners] just asked me, ‘who do you want?’. They had a load of bids out for pretty much every top player in the world. They had just put all of these bids out to see if anyone would actually come back, but people forget that at that time, Man City was a mid-table Premier League club – mid-table to bottom if we’re honest.”
“It was a crazy day, bids were going out for Lionel Messi and all sorts! We finally managed to get Robinho over the line which was a hell of a statement, and the rest is history.” he added revealing the club’s original desire to sign Lionel Messi back in 2008 when he was in his absolute prime.
Abu Dhabi United Group’s $250 million takeover of Man City
The multi-billion football club ownership takeovers have become the new norm lately. With the ongoing saga of Sir Jim Ratcliffe at Manchester United, Todd Boehly taking charge at Chelsea, to Newcastle’s new Saudi owners ‘PIF’ in the English Premier League, it all started back in August 2008.
Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan owned Abu Dhabi United Group, whose $250 million takeover of Manchester City paved the way for the club’s huge success in the past decade, and marked as the beginning of a new era for the Citizens. The UAE-based owners splashed an unprecedented amount of investments, bringing in some of the best players to the Etihad.
At that time, City claimed the title of one of the richest sporting teams in Europe, and it still holds. Fast forward to today, the Abu Dhabi United Group has expanded its wings to other leagues through the ‘City Football Group’ subsidiary, which owns more than ten football clubs globally, including Manchester City.
