Real Madrid were alerted to a possible move for Messi in 2001

In 2001, Real Madrid were informed that they could try to sign Lionel Messi, then a teenager without a professional contract with Barcelona. The possibility never led to a transfer, according to Miguel Ángel Portugal, a former player, coach and technical secretary at the Madrid club.

Portugal says someone close to the future Barcelona star raised the prospect of a move to the Santiago Bernabéu. “There was a moment when they could have got involved. At the beginning of the 2000s, in 2001 specifically, he still didn’t have a professional contract with Barcelona and his renewal wasn’t complete. Someone close to him offered him to Madrid,” he said.

The former official also stressed the limits of his recollection. He said he could not establish whether the approach was genuine, although information about a possible move did reach the club. “I don’t know whether it was true or false, but the club received information that they could go after him. The possibility was there. We didn’t want to damage our relations with Barcelona, but there was an approach. Out of respect, I don’t think it would have gone any further,” he explained.

His account does not show that a deal was close. Rather, it indicates that the idea of approaching the young Argentine was raised at Real Madrid at a time when Messi did not yet have a professional contract with Barcelona. Portugal believes the club ultimately did not pursue the possibility, partly out of concern for its relationship with its rival.

Portugal also recalled watching Argentina’s Under-20 side, where Messi played alongside Sergio Agüero and Ezequiel Garay. “I was watching the Argentina Under-20 team at the time and it was an incredible group: Garay, Agüero, Messi,” he said. He summed up Messi’s situation with a short reminder: “But he was playing for Barcelona.”

Messi went on to progress through the Catalan club’s academy and into its first team, becoming a major figure in its modern history. Portugal also discussed other players he followed in his scouting work, including Neymar and Coutinho. But the proposed approach for Messi, which led to no concrete move, remains the central point of his account.