Arsenal Nearly Signed Messi, Admits Wenger

The Gunners were looking to sign the Argentine from Barcelona's academy when he was 16 years old but the Frenchman says the forward rejected the opportunity to move. Arsene Wenger has revealed Arsenal were close to signing Lionel Messi but says the Argentine wanted to stay at Barcelona. The Gunners were in the running to sign Messi from Barcelona's academy in 2003 when the forward was 16 years old and had not yet made his first-team debut for the Spanish club. Arsenal did manage to secure Cesc Fabregas from Barcelona in September 2003 but Messi joins Paul Pogba, Eden Hazard, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Yaya Toure on the list of players who were reportedly close to a move to north London. "It's true, it's just that he [Messi] didn't want to move," Wenger told reporters. "In the end, he was comfortable at Barcelona." The future of Messi has been shrouded in doubt of late, though Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu publicly insisted the player is happy to stay at Camp Nou. Source:goal