Sport24.az
Former Argentina national team coach Jose Pekerman has revealed how he prevented Lionel Messi from playing for the Spanish national team. Sport24.az reports that the Argentine expert said in an interview with "Marca" that the future star was very close to playing for the Spanish national team at that time:
"Messi's documents were being prepared for him to play for the Spanish national team. He was about to be called up to the U-20 national team. As soon as I heard about it, I took action. At that time, I instructed Hugo Tokalli, who was the coach of the Argentina U-17 national team, to urgently call Messi to a friendly match. The goal was to officially register Lionel's name as an Argentine player in the FIFA list. That's how we snatched Messi from Spain."
