Even if you don't think that Lionel Messi is the greatest player of all-time, there is little doubt that he is amongst the most talented players to ever lace up their boots.
The Argentine has won an incredible amount of honours with Barcelona, including ten league titles and four European Cups.
It's hard to imagine Messi playing for a different club, although we did come close to seeing it last summer. He was intent on leaving Barcelona after another embarrassing exit form the Champions League, although the club ultimately refused.
His contract is up at the end of the season, with Ronald Koeman and the club's new hierarchy having only a few months to convince him stay at the Camp Nou.
However, he actually could have left Barcelona before his career ever really got going.
Appearing on Radio Onda Cero Joan Laporta, who served as Barcelona's president from 2003-2010, revealed that the club rejected a €250million bid from Inter Milan for Messi back in 2006.
Laporta is now running for the position once again and hopes to convince the 33-year old to stay at the club should he be elected for a second time.
Nobody who loves Barcelona can have doubts about Messi. I hope I can be named president and then I’ll speak with him.
We rejected a €250m offer coming form Inter in 2006. Moratti wanted to bring him to his club.
We have a plan to recover the dramatic economic situation of the club.
We can fix the world but we can make it a better place and we want to do it through hard word, passion and love. We want to bring happiness to people, it’s not an electoral promise. It’s an ethical, civic, moral and commitment.
While €250million would be a sizeable bid in the current market, it was an unprecedented amount of money back in 2006.
The most expensive transfer ever completed at this point was Zinedine Zidane's move to Real Madrid in 2001, which cost a relatively measly €77.5million.
Rejecting a bid of that magnitude couldn't have been an easy decision, especially when Messi was relatively unproven at this stage of his career. It's safe to say they made the right decision.
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