Former Glasgow Rangers coach Alex McLeish spoke about an attempt to buy Lionel Messi many years ago, when he was still a teenager. "My son got into the 'Championship Manager' game and told me the names of the most promising players from South America. It was said that L. Messi would become the best footballer on the planet. At that time Messi was only 13 or 14 years old. You may not believe it, but we were actually looking for players in the midfield. Barry Ferguson left for Blackburn and we lost an important player. Jan Wouters called Henk ten Cate, who was Frank Rijkaard's assistant, but soon received the answer: 'No chance.' Interestingly, the Dutch assistant had mentioned the possibility of getting Andres Iniesta, but the midfielder soon shone in training at Barca, so we were left empty-handed as well."
