Bengaluru, June 25: Just imagine two of world's best players, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi running down the wings in the Real Madrid shirts.

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A dream right? However, this could have been the reality as according to his former agent Horacio Gaggioli Messi would have been a Madrid player if he had moved to the Spanish capital instead.

The little Argentine then shifted from Rosario, Argentina to Barcelona as a youth in February 2001 with the help of his agent then Horacio Gaggioli.

Gaggioli lived in the Catalan City and had set up Messi's trail with the Camp Nou club. However, the agent told Globoesporte had he taken up home in Madrid which he considered that moment, he supposes the five-time Ballon d'Or winner would have started his footballing career at the Bernabeu.

"Due to life circumstances, I went to live in Barcelona and I brought him to Barca for a trial. But I was about to live in Madrid," Gaggioli said.

"If that had happened, I would have taken him to Madrid for a trial. That's life, those are the details.

"Today, Messi could have been a Real Madrid player, of course. The family wanted to come to Spain, to the city where I was to have some support."

Gaggioli also stated that he was not assured that Messi was a skilled player until he watched him play at the training of Barcelona as he was too small and skinny.

"When I saw him at the airport, I thought that boy could not be a footballer because he was too small and skinny.

"I did not have a good impression. But when I saw him training in the Barca fields, I realised that he was a great player, who could play without a doubt."

Messi, who turned 30 yesterday, has gone on to win eight La Liga titles and four Champions League crowns among a long list of trophies with the Catalan club.

The attacker has till now scored 510 goals, as well as created a further 231, in 585 appearances to cement his name in the folklore of Barcelona as their greatest ever player.

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