"There were bids going out for Lionel Messi and all sorts" – Mark Hughes confirms Manchester City tried to sign Barcelona legend

Ex-Manchester City manager Mark Hughes has revealed that the Cityzens tried to sign Barcelona great and Inter Miami attacker Lionel Messi on the day of their Abu Dhabi takeover.

Hughes, who is an ex-Manchester United forward, was City's manager back on the deadline day of the summer transfer window of the 2008-09 campaign. He was out playing golf with friends when the team's CEO Gary Cook called him to confirm the much-talked-about takeover.

During an interview on the No Tippy Tappy Football podcast, Hughes remembered the details of the call and revealed Manchester City's approach for Messi. He said (h/t Express):

"They just asked me, 'Who do you want?'. They had a load of bids out for pretty much every top player in the world. They had just put all of these bids out to see if anyone would actually come back, but people forget that at that time, Manchester City were a mid-table club – mid-table to bottom if we're honest."

Hughes, who failed to win a trophy with Manchester City, continued:

"There weren't that many takers because players were thinking, 'Manchester City, who?'. They had all these bids out and nothing was happening, then all of a sudden they had a little nibble from Robinho and Real Madrid."

Asserting that Manchester City lodged an offer to lure Messi away from Barcelona, the ex-Blackburn Rovers and Fulham manager elaborated:

"We had to try to make it happen and I knew the Real Madrid coach at the time, Bernd Schuster, so I was on the phone to him asking if there was any chance of letting Robinho speak to us. It was a crazy day, there were bids going out for Lionel Messi and all sorts! We finally managed to get Robinho over the line which was a hell of a statement, and the rest is history."

During his time at the Etihad Stadium, Robinho found the back of the net 16 times and laid out 12 assists in 53 outings across competitions.

Luis Suarez joins Inter Miami to reunite with all-time Barcelona top-scorer Lionel Messi

Earlier this Friday (December 22), Inter Miami confirmed Luis Suarez's arrival on a free transfer after the ex-Barcelona attacker's Gremio exit.

Suarez, 36, decided to seal a permanent move to the Herons to reunite with Messi at club level. He will be entering 2024 on stellar form after registering 26 goals and 17 assists in 53 matches for Gremio in 2023.

An ex-Liverpool and Ajax striker, the Uruguayan spent six campaigns at Barcelona between 2014 and 2020. He scored 198 goals and laid out 113 assists in 283 appearances for the La Liga side, lifting 13 trophies.