FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi and former boss Pep Guardiola were known to have a great understanding, but did you know their relationship was almost ruined early on?
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By the end of Guardiola's reign as the Catalan club's manager, it was clear he shared a close bond with his former players, especially Messi – the team's superstar.
However, things weren't great from the get-go as the Spaniard faced a tough task in getting the winger on his side in order to get the best out of the Argentine.
In Guardiola's debut season, Barcelona had UEFA Champions League qualifiers to play as Frank Rijkaard's former side had failed to gain automatic qualification in the campaign before.
According to Spanish football expert Guillem Balague's book, Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning, the boss noticed that Messi had not seemed himself, and he set out to find out why.
The young attacker appeared distant at training, and even reacted angrily to a couple of tackles from his teammates, and, although Guardiola never said anything, he eventually figured out what the issue was.
Barca's Champions League qualifiers were taking place around the same time as Argentina's Olympic Games campaign, which Messi wasn't initially able to attend because of the club's rules.
If the Blaugrana hadn't granted Messi's wish to play for his country's Olympic team, things could have reflected poorly on Guardiola, and made his young protege unhappy.
The boss intervened at the perfect time, begging the club to allow Messi to fulfil his international duties, knowing this was his chance to get the player on his side; to earn his trust.
As such, the Argentine was allowed to go to the Olympics, despite Barcelona's tough fixtures, and he returned with a gold medal.
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The pair would go on to have four extremely successful years together, with Messi finding the net 211 times in 219 games under Guardiola.
Do you think their relationship would have turned ugly had Guardiola not fought for Messi to go to the Olympics? Let us know in the comments section below.
