ONE of the weirdest conversations I have had in recent months concerned Lionel Messi, Rangers and Aston Villa manager Alex McLeish.

Researching my book on FC Barcelona, I discovered that in his earliest days in the first team, Messi was very nearly loaned to Rangers to gather experience. While McLeish was confirming the details of the story he added a tiny, quirky aside. ''Our scouts had spotted Messi in youth tournaments,'' he explained, ''but my son, Jon, had seen him a couple of years earlier as a 'prospect' on Football Manager!"

It transpired that the research put into that interactive computer game is so thorough that starlets are often pinpointed there before they register on the radar of the majority of big, predatory clubs.

In which case, Jean Marie Dongou must already be a superstar on Football Manager.

You might argue - with justification - that for the same club to possess Messi and then have coming through the youth ranks a striker with what appears to be an equally voracious appetite for goals, seems utterly unjust. But Barcelona is in that precise situation.