Kapello Regrets Failure to Recruit Messi

Fabio Kapello tells the story of a failed attempt to recruit Lionel Messi when the player was still a young player at Barcelona.

The Italian coach, Fabio Kapello, expressed his regret at not being able to recruit striker Lionel Messi when he coached Juventus. "Messi got away from me in the Gamper Cup. He was only 16 at the time, playing with incredible dedication and ease in front of 90,000 spectators against my Juventus defenders. After 20 minutes, I approached Rijkaard and asked him to loan Messi for a year, because at that time he was the fourth foreign player at Barcelona. However, he refused because they were looking for a legal solution, and then they found some European relatives for him," Kapello told Sky Sports. A few days ago, Messi's hat-trick helped Argentina achieve a landslide victory over Algeria at the start of the 2026 World Cup.