Following today’s announcement regarding Spain’s squad for the European Championship in France this summer, Harry Redknapp has admitted his surprise that Vicente Del Bosque didn’t call up Argentina’s Lionel Messi.
“Look, he’s a triffic player. And he has shown time and time again that he can do it for Spain; I mean, just look at his Barcelona statistics.
“Spain certainly have a lot of options. However, is that Morata bloke – can’t remember his first name…is it Steve? – really that much better than Messi? I think we all know the answer to that.”
Harry Redknapp
Redknapp, who was speaking to the Disney Channel, also revealed that Messi, who has 31 goals in 77 appearances for Argentina, came close to joining him at Portsmouth.
“I knew about Messi before anyone. Even before Arsene Wenger no doubt ‘tried to sign him’.
“The first time I came across him, I was on holiday with my dog Rosie, and we were playing fetch – I’d throw the ball for her and then she’d throw it for me. Anyway, this young lad came over, couldn’t have been more than three-weeks old and totally bamboozled myself and Rosie; we couldn’t get the ball back for nearly an hour.
“I’ve tracked him ever since then. And even tried to get him with me at Pompey but he never replied to me on MSN so I guess he wasn’t interested.”
Harry Redknapp
