Back in 2004, there were two young players who caught the eye of Arsenal legend Arsene Wenger. Wenger sought to recruit both players.

Wenger was very good at looking into the possibilities of young players. He approached with confidence in the two players. He was not a world-renowned player until then. He was literally a prospect. One was a striker who played for Barcelona and the other was a defender for Manchester United. Wenger planned to strengthen his team by recruiting them in attack and defense.

Wenger tried unsuccessfully to buy both players at the same time. Both players remained at Barcelona and Manchester United. Had Wenger succeeded in getting the two players, Arsenal might have been the strongest team ever. Who were the two players.

One was Lionel Messi. The other was Gerard Pique. The two players worked together at La Masia in Barcelona. Pique transferred to Manchester United Youth in 2004 and moved to the first team, and Messi remained in Barcelona and moved to the first team. The two met again in Barcelona in 2008, and the city began to dominate the world soccer. Messi is inscribed in history as the greatest striker in Barcelona's history, and Pique is seen in Barcelona's history as the greatest defender in Barcelona's history.

At the time, Arsenal players also had Messi and Pique, as well as genius midfielder Cesc Fabregas. He has also experienced La Masia together. Fabregas pushed for recruitment of Messi and Pique, which was partly due to Fabregas. Then, they could have had the best players in the midfield as well. Messi in attack, Fabregas in midfield, Pique in defender, and Arsenal's best team could be formed.

Pique released the behind-the-scenes story. "Fabregas left for Arsenal first, and then Wenger came to sign me. Arsenal started negotiations with Barcelona. The negotiations took some time. I didn't want to have a big fight with Barcelona because Arsenal had already taken over Fabregas at the time. The club firmly held that it could not afford to give more players to Arsenal."

While the negotiations took some time, Manchester United dug in. Pique said, "When Barcelona and Arsenal took some time to negotiate, Manchester United came in actively. Manchester United insisted on coming to Manchester United right now. They asked me to sign a contract right now, so I decided to go to Manchester United."

"Benger wanted to recruit Messi as well. Wenger wanted Messi and Fabregas and me to play for Arsenal. But I never had a chance to recruit Messi," he said, reflecting that both Messi and Barcelona only thought about staying.

"It was good that all three of us came back to Barcelona. We all came back and played in the first team together," Pique said.