Spanish publication Cadena Cope is running an intriguing story on Thursday morning that claims Real Madrid have spoken to Lionel Messi on three separate occasions about convincing him to join them from arch-rivals Barcelona.
And interestingly, Messi has met with them to hear out their proposals each time, but has ultimately rejected their advances to remain at the Nou Camp.
The firs offer reportedly came in 2011 when Real had fears than newly rich Manchester City would make a move for Cristiano Ronaldo, so they sounded Messi out, who told them that he wasn’t interested.
Two years later an unnamed “senior executive of Real Madrid” managed to wrangle a second meeting with the Argentine, but again his answer was no.
And the third and final meeting was brokered by the same executive just over a year ago, but again, he was met with the same answer.
It is worth pointing out that Barcelona are set to come under an immense strain as his giant wage hike is set to come in to play, meaning the club may have to cash in on either him or Neymar.
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