Although in this summer of 2020 it has been closer than ever to seeing Leo Messi with another shirt that was not Barcelona'sFollowing his threat to leave the club, he may have done so many times on previous occasions. The clearest of them, according to the journalist Gianluca Di Marzio, a specialist in the transfer market, was in 2014. Di Marzio has recently published a book entitled “Grand Hotel Calciomercato” in which the untold stories of the transfer markets are told.
In 2014, according to Di Marzio, andl Chelsea was willing to activate the 250 million euro release clause and pay the Argentine star's 50 million net salary to take him to the Premier League, what Di Marzio regards as “the biggest unknown story in the transfer market.”
The book reveals a face-to-face conversation by video call between Mourinho and Messi, where all the economic terms were already accepted. However, both Jorge Messi, father and agent, and his former partner Deco cut the negotiations abruptly.
In that book it is also said that Florentino tried his signing a year before the team 'blue', but the Argentine player refused to negotiate with Real Madrid.