Former Arsenal scout Francis Cagigao admits the club were close to doing deals for Lionel Messi and Gerard Pique.
The two went on to have huge success at Barcelona, with Messi establishing himself as one of the greatest footballers of all time.
Pique had a spell at Manchester United early in his career, but then went back to the Catalan club under Pep Guardiola‘s management.
“Arsene has said that at one stage we were close to signing Leo Messi and although I wouldn’t go so far as to say we were close, we were there or thereabouts,” Cagigao said in an interview with Guillem Balague on YouTube.
“Discussions took place with his representative, but he had an issue with his work permit which at the time wasn’t even clear in Spain where he was, so that was discarded.”
On Pique, he said: “It’s public knowledge that Gerard Pique was inches away from signing a contract with us, but he joined Manchester United six months later.
“There was some contractual disagreement between the club and Gerard’s representatives, and it didn’t go forward because of that.”
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