Back in 2014, Manchester City owners Sheikh Mansour and club chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak were believed to have meet Lionel Messi in Dubai and a deal was in place to sign the Barcelona legend swap Camp Nou for the Etihad Stadium.
Messi was wooed by City's long term project and contingency of Argentinean's plying their trade at City. agreeing
In fact, he was even told, Pep Guardiola will join the club sooner rather then later and all he needed to do was sign a 6-year contract worth $350m.
But Messi was in no hurry to sign, he traveled back to his family to discuss the situation as well as his closet friends at Barcelona.
But someone very important to him made him change his mind and that is late Tito Vilanova. The former Barcelona coach spents hours convincing him to stay at the club where he will immortalized before passing away six days later.
Vilanova's No. 2 Jordi Roura felt his message resonated in Messi and that is why he still at Barcelona and not Manchester City.
"Tito was at a delicate stage and Leo wasn't convinced about his continuity", Roura told Radio Kanal Barcelona.
"They meet and although i wasn't there, i know they spent a number of hours talking. Messi decided to stay and we hope that he will for many more years".
Roura added: "Messi is here at Barcelona because of Vilanova's and secondly, the club's ambition to keep competing and winning titles".
Leaving Barcelona now for Manchester City looks virtually impossible cause if he those, Barcelona will crumble just like Real Madrid and it will take years to find a super player who can score 40 goals consecutively for 10 consecutive season.