It didn’t make much difference if Lionel Messi could have made the switch to Manchester City in 2008. Garry Cook, the CEO of City in 2008, said this in an interview. The English club accidentally bid on the Argentinian attacker.
In conversation with The Athletic Cook indicates that a misunderstanding at the time caused him to offer more than 80 million euros to the Argentinian attacker, an amount that was still huge in 2008. The team had set its sights on Fernando Torres and Dimitar Berbatov, but those deals were bouncing. Pairoj Piempongsant, the right-hand man of the old owner Thaksin Shinawatra, called Operational Director Paul Aldridge to discuss it.
Piempongsant was grumpy according to Cook that the transfers had been canceled and said on the phone: “Yes, yes, yes! Very messy, messy, it’s getting messy.” Because of Piempongsant’s accent, Aldridge did not quite understand what he meant and thought he was ordered to buy Messi. Aldridge then told Cook to bid 82 million on the Argentinian star.
“Paul came and told me: Garry, this is a mess. I said let’s make the offer and see what happens. The next day Dave Richards (the Premier League president, ed.) Called City so much money could pay for the Argentinian. ” Once it became clear that it was a misunderstanding, the deal was canceled.
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