Real Madrid and Barcelona share arguably the biggest rivalry in world football. Both clubs have produced some brilliant players over the years. But it looks like one of the veteran stars of the Catalan giants could have ended up at Santiago Bernabeu in his youth days, before he ever joined La Masia.
The player in question is Sergi Roberto, who came through the youth ranks at Barcelona and has spent his entire career at the club, never even going out on loan. Thus, the Spaniard is a true one club man.
But during his youth days, Real Madrid were interested in Roberto as well. And he could have ended up in the Spanish capital but unfortunate circumstances stopped that from happening.
As reported by SPORT, Manolo Romero, who was a scout of Real Madrid in Catalonia for two decades said on ‘El Bar’ of Cadena SER:
"“We were meeting in the offices of Nàstic with Sergi Roberto, but a health problem of his mother stopped the signing.”"
Real Madrid were close to signing Barcelona veteran
Roberto preferred to stay in Catalonia with his mother and ultimately ended up joining Barcelona. He has gone on to have a wonderful career at Camp Nou.
Roberto has made more than 300 appearances for Barcelona till now. He has never even gone out on loan and at 31 years of age, there is a genuine possibility that he might even end up retiring there some day. His current deal with the club is believed to run until the summer of 2024. He has made some appearances for the Spain national team as well but was never really able to establish himself at the international level.
Roberto could have played a part in Real Madrid’s team as well, if he had signed for the club. His versatility is something that would be valuable to any club in the world. But at the same time, it is hard to imagine that he would have been a starter at Santiago Bernabeu.