LIONEL MESSI’s texts to Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola have been revealed in a new book.

The extracts show how close the superstar came to joining his former Barcelona manager in the Premier League.

3Pep Guardiola and Lionel Messi came close to a reunion at Manchester City in 2020 Credit: Reuters

3The Argentine was interested in leaving Barça to go to Manchester. Credit: Getty

On August 17, 2020, Messi wrote just five words: “Hello Pep: how are you?”

This came after the football icon suffered another Champions League humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich in 2020.

Barcelona were eliminated from Europe in the quarter-finals (and have not gone that far since) after suffering an 8-2 thrashing at the hands of Bayern.

And it seems that Messi, fed up, was wondering if Guardiola had a place for him in his squad.

The Argentine’s father, Jorge, is then said to have contacted Manchester City chief executive Ferran Soriano, who asked Pep to meet his son.

After receiving both messages, Guardiola agreed to sit down with Messi at the coach’s home in Barcelona, and the conversation lasted SIX HOURS.

In excerpts published in the Daily Mail, Messi is seen telling Guardiola in 2020: “Boss, I just want to go as far as I can. I still want to do big things.”

Pep replied: “We train hard and do you know that it rains a lot in Manchester?”

Messi: “I’ll face it, I can face anything they throw at me.”

Pep: “Leo, we are both much older than before. We may not get along now.”

At 6.30pm they said goodbye with a warm hug and Guardiola began making plans for Messi’s team to approach the club.

Manchester City were excited by the prospect of arguably the world’s greatest player of all time joining their ranks, having just beaten them to the Premier League title by Liverpool.

Bernardo Silva texted Guardiola on September 3: “Is it true about Messi?” and added: “I would run twice as much.”

In the end, Messi did not join Manchester City after his father wanted to avoid a legal dispute and agreed a one-year deal with his boyhood club.

Messi then signed a two-year contract worth £25m per year with Paris Saint-Germain, before joining MLS side Inter Miami on a blockbuster free transfer in June 2023.

Meanwhile, the book also claims that Guardiola was not interested in signing Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021 because the striker did not fit into his well-oiled system.

Author Marti Perarnau writes in ‘Pep’s Revolution’: “How could Ronaldo fit into the precision machine that the Catalan has built with so much effort at City?”

City were said to be interested in Ronaldo before neighbours Manchester United rushed to lure their club legend back to Old Trafford.