Ghenes Melendez, the former youth coach of the Spanish national team, revealed that Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas tried to convince Lionel Messi as a teenager to represent Spain instead of Argentina.

Speaking to AS, Melendez explained that Alex Garcia, Barcelona’s youth coach, encouraged him to recruit Messi while the future superstar was making his way through La Masia.

Melendez recalled: He always told me: Listen, we have to convince the Argentine to play for Spain.

Messi belonged to the same generation as Pique and Fabregas, who also tried to convince their Barcelona teammate to join Spain.

Melendez said: He was from the generation of 1987, the same generation as Gerard Pique and Cesc Fabregas. I had 8 players from Barcelona in the national team. They helped me talk to him, to try to convince him to play for us.

Meléndez made another attempt during the Spanish Under-16 Championship when Messi was 14, but the young striker never changed his mind.

Melendez admitted: I told him again: Please, you have to play with us… but he never wanted to.

Reflecting on what could have been, Melendez said former Spain coach Vicente del Bosque believed Messi could have made an already dominant Spain team more successful.

Melendez revealed that Del Bosque told him: If I had been able to get him to play with us, we would have won two or three more World Cup titles.