‘Messi came close to joining Inter’, former Barcelona president reveals
"It was 2006 when Inter made an offer. They were prepared to pay the €150m buy-out clause, which is why we raised it to €250m, but I always felt reassured by my relationship with his dad, Jorge.I told him: ‘They’ll have to pay the clause because I won’t sell. He’ll be happy here, he’ll get glory. There, he’ll only win financially. Your son’s destined to be the greatest in history and here he’ll have a team to help get there. He’ll enjoy it.’”
Messi is now negotiating a contract extension with Barcelona. The Argentinean star could earn somewhere around € 40 million but a final agreement as not been reached yet with Messi’s current deal expiring in just 12 months.