Barcelona star Lionel Messi was close to signing for Juventus. It was before he became the world's best player and it was Fabio Capello, then in charge of Juve, Luis Enrique's side's opponent in the Champions League, who almost signed him.

Former Juve player Mauro Camoranesi remembered the moment in an interview with Goal.com: "Juventus would have won the Champions League if they'd has Messi on loan 10 years ago.

"Capello has already seen him play, we hadn't. He's already identified that he was a different player. In fact, in the week before the game (the Joan Gamper Trophy 2005) some of the players got together and Messi came up, (Capello) told us that he was going to be one of the best in the world.

"It was strange because Capello very rarely bet on young players because he felt the didn't have experience."

That Camoranesi interview was from last year with Goal.com and was in reference to that Joan Gamper game which proved one of the key moments as Messi broke on to the world stage.

On that day, Juve wanted to take him on loan -- over 10 years later, they're preparing to face him in the Champions League once again.