As early as the summer of 2005, Barcelona Is in the first quarrel with the Spanish Football Association [RFEF] Regarding Messi’s registration.
The Catalans are working hard to include this boy’s miracle in the new season’s lineup, because as the holder of the Argentine passport, Messi is regarded as a foreign player, despite Barcelona’s insistence that he is an “assimilated” Spaniard.
With RFEF’s perseverance, a season loan was proposed, and Pochettino’s Espanyol team brought a large number of suitors to the teenager.
“I remember that summer, he was very close to a transfer to the Espanyol,” Pochettino said before the UEFA Champions League game against Tottenham Hotspur against Messi in 2018.
“Maybe he could have become the biggest star of the Espanyol. We should be Barcelona! He will be my teammate, and maybe I will manage him in the Espanyol.”
In the end, Messi obtained a Spanish passport and stayed in Barcelona. The rest is history.
Pochettino will never forget the gift given by God-in the Spurs, he once named the “five geniuses” he worked with, including Diego Maradona and Ronaldinho-and , He must look back at that sliding door moment from time to time and wonder what it might be.
This week, after the striker reached a two-year contract with Paris Saint-Germain, Pochettino finally ended his lingering regret about missing cooperation with Messi.
For the head coach-an Argentine with deep connections between Newell’s Old Boys and Barcelona, and a romantic coach-coaching Messi must feel like the culmination of a dream.
At Paris Saint-Germain, Pochettino must have added more talents to his shortlist, but Messi is at the top of the list, only compared to Maradona, the 49-year-old player’s former roommate in Newell.
However, Pochettino’s situation is not without complications, and, as strange as it sounds, there is actually a question whether Messi is suitable for his new coach.
Pochettino has established his reputation with the Spurs. He has created a team that exceeds the sum of all parts, with a fierce professional ethics and commitment to the collective. No one is greater than the team, and the spirit he created dragged the Tottenham Hotspur brothers all the way to the Champions League final.
Pochettino has adapted to the superstars of Paris Saint-Germain, but there is evidence that his attitude is tough because his new team defeated Messi’s Barcelona in the Champions League last season.
However, with Messi, Pochettino must accommodate the biggest star in the game, as well as Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, and shape them into the unstoppable top three.
In the most important game leading with the 34-year-old Messi and Neymar, his intense pressure game will be difficult to execute because both forwards-understandably-are allowed to indulge. In Barcelona, Messi often walks in the game to save his shine.
There is also a question of the tremendous pressure to win the Champions League this season, and whether it will be regarded as a question of Pochettino’s great achievement given the huge amount of funds invested by Paris Saint-Germain for the project under Qatar’s ownership.
For the manager of such a fantasy team, this job may feel like a thankless task. There is not enough entertainment, only clean silverware is enough. It’s hard not to think of the poisonous Holy Grail.
It is ironic that Pochettino won PSG’s job by constantly challenging low expectations and proving himself to be one of the Spurs’ best team builders.
He now finds that he must meet the highest imaginable expectations and get the most benefit from the best — and the highest paid — individuals to play the game.
