There’s been a few Rangers transfer near-misses over the years that are enough to make a grown man weep.
There’s legendary Brazilian striker Ronaldo, El Fenómeno himself admitting he had an offer from the famous Glasgow Rangers before moving to Inter Milan.
There’s Mario Jardel, another Brazilian hitman for whom goalscoring was second nature, and more recently you can pretty much take your pick of the Dutch national team and Rangers might’ve tried their hand.
Rangers and Alex McLeish even cheekily made a loan bid for Lionel Messi before the Argentine legend started making the grade in the Barcelona first-team.
But there is one of Messi’s most legendary teammates who also came close to joining Rangers in the summer of 2003 who has just finally announced his retirement from football.
Andres Iniesta retires from football
Andres Iniesta is one of the finest footballers to ever play the game and the midfield maestro’s legendary haul of trophies with Spain and Barcelona proves it.
One of the central figures in both Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering Barcelona side and in the Spain squad who lifted two European Championships and a World Cup, where he scored in the winning goal in the 2010 Final, midfielders don’t come much bigger or better than Andres Iniesta.
And now football has seen one of its eternal heroes finally step down after years stealing hearts on the football pitch.
Whilst Andres Iniesta is most famous for his 22 years at Barcelona, the 40-year-old has spent the last five years between Japan with Vissel Kobe and in the UAE with Emirates.
Now hanging up his boots once and for all, an emotional Iniesta made the announcement at an event in Barcelona.
“Being on the pitch is over,” said Iniesta, as quoted by BBC Sport. “I can’t stay away from football, it’s my life and will continue to be my life.
“Yes, all these tears we have shed these days are tears of emotion, of pride. They are not tears of sadness.
“They are tears of that boy from a small town like Fuentealbilla, who had the dream of being a footballer and we achieved it after a lot of hard work, sacrifice, of never giving up, essential values in my life.”
Rangers tried to sign legendary Spanish midfielder
Andres Iniesta might now be hanging up his boots but how different things might’ve gone for the legendary Spaniard had he joined Rangers in 2003.
Ex-Rangers manager Alex McLeish has previously revealed that he almost signed the then 18-year-old on a season-long loan deal.
McLeish also claims that Rangers explored the idea of signing Pep Guardiola before the now Manchester City boss moved to Italian club Brescia.
“We dabbled with Pep Guardiola before he left Barcelona to move to Italian team Brescia,” said McLeish, as quoted by Rangers.co.uk.
“We felt we needed a midfielder and had chats with Guardiola’s people. I met him at the Ryder Cup in America a few years ago and mentioned that to him.
“But Andres Iniesta was the one we really pushed for. That would have been a loan move. We wanted a dominant midfielder and he was it, although he was very young.
“He was flirting with the Barcelona first team and Jan Wouters made some calls to Frank Rijkaard and his assistant.
“They gave us a wee chink of light but come the weekend he played for Barcelona and played really well. So they told us there was no way they could let him go.”
As football remembers one of its greatest ever players in Andres Iniesta, just imagine if the great man had donned the Rangers jersey!
