The former agent of Lionel Messi has revealed that the Barcelona forward could well have ended up at Real Madrid had his own personal circumstances worked out differently.

Messi has spent his entire senior career at Camp Nou, breaking into the first-team ranks in 2004 and going on to score an unrivalled 507 goals for club and country in that time.

The Argentina international's first representative Horacio Gaggioli has claimed that rivals Real could well have been his team of choice when leaving Newell's Old Boys at the age of 13, however, as he was thinking about relocating to the capital at the time.

"Due to life circumstances, I went to live in Barcelona and I brought him to Barca for a trial. But I was about to live in Madrid," he told Globoesporte .

"If that had happened, I would have taken him to Madrid for a trial. That's life, those are the details. Today, Messi could have been a Real Madrid player, of course. The family wanted to come to Spain, to the city where I was to have some support."

Messi, who turned 30 today, has spent 13 seasons with Barcelona and won 30 titles in all.