Miguel Ángel Portugal explains why Real Madrid did not sign Messi in 2001

Miguel Ángel Portugal has revisited a missed opportunity for Real Madrid: Lionel Messi could have joined the club in 2001, according to the former player and scout. Portugal says there was a chance to pursue the signing while Messi’s future at Barcelona remained unsettled.

Now 70, Portugal played for Real Madrid, coached the Castilla team and worked as a talent scout and the club’s technical secretary. In an interview, he discussed several players Real Madrid could have signed; his comments were later published by a Spanish media outlet.

On Messi, Portugal said the player did not yet have a professional contract with Barcelona and that talks over a renewal were not complete. He recalled that someone close to the player had proposed a move to Real Madrid. But Portugal qualified the account: “I don’t know if it’s true or not, but the information reached the club, and it said that it might have been possible to act to sign him.”

Portugal believes Real Madrid did not pursue the option because it did not want to damage its relationship with Barcelona. “The opportunity was definitely there. The club did not want to break off its relationship with Barcelona, but there was indeed an approach. However, I think it would not have taken that step, out of respect for the relationship between the two clubs,” he said. His account therefore describes a possibility raised within the club, not a transfer that was completed.

The other examples Portugal mentioned offer a glimpse of the scouting work he says he carried out. “We followed Neymar and Coutinho, and the recommendation to sign them was always there. The reports on them are still in the club’s archives,” he said. He also recalled seeing Toni Kroos at 16, playing as an advanced playmaker, and telling him that he had reports on him.

Portugal described Luka Modrić’s improvement in England after seeing him as somewhat slight early in his career. He also said he had watched Robinho as a child at the Copa São Paulo de Futebol Júnior, highlighting the distinctiveness of his talent. Finally, he contrasted Vinícius’s reliance on acceleration and one-on-one battles with Robinho’s imagination and technique.