How Barcelona superstars Gerard Piqué and Lionel Messi tried to recruit Nigerian midfielder John Ogu to play for their club in Spain [Pulse Exclusive]
The move didn't happen and Ogu believes he was too expensive for the club.
John Ogu was startled by a message he received from Gerard Piqué’s Instagram account sometime in August 2019. He didn’t believe it, so he thought it might have been from a hacker.
It, however, turned out to be Piqué and some conversations with the Barcelona legend later, Ogu was on the cusp of a move back to Spain.
The encounter with the Spanish World Cup-winning defender came at a time when Ogu was without a club having left Israeli side Hapoel Be'er Sheva after a successful five-year stint.
At home after representing Nigeria at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and while waiting on his next movie, Piqué hit him up.
“I woke up one day and I got a message from Piqué from his handle on Instagram. To be honest with you, I was shocked. I thought maybe it was some hacker that had sent me a message,” the midfielder told Pulse in an Instagram Live interview.
“So I was kinda shocked and worried in a way. I was with few of my friends so I had to speak with my friends, 'look at the guy that sent me a message, this is Piqué, are you sure the account is not hacked?
“I had to even post it out on Instagram Stories that 'hacked Piqué account sent me a message'. So it was kind of weird.”
The next day, Piqué sent him a message again.
“But then he got back to me again the next day. So it was basically that he, (Lionel) Messi, (Cesc) Fabregas own a team in some country that is close to Spain and they play in the third division of Spain, so he wanted me to go play for the team and everything,” Ogu said.
Piqué in December 2018, through his company Kosmos Holding Group, completed his purchase of FC Andorra, a football club based in Encamp, Andorra who play in the Spanish third division.
A couple of weeks after he took ownership of the club, two of his close friends Messi and Fabregas bought shares at the club.
It was for FC Andorra that Piqué tried to recruit Ogu for.
“So we spoke for a while and he told me the plans of the club, the project and everything, so I was really looking forward to it," Ogu said.
The deal, however, did not go through and Ogu believed it was because the club couldn’t afford him.
“I didn't hear from them, maybe obviously they felt like I might cost a lot. It was just a discussion on coming to their team, it didn’t happen," the 32-year-old said.
Ogu remained clubless for six months before he joined Saudi Arabian side Al-Adalah in January. The Nigerian midfielder has made seven appearances so far for the Saudi Professional League side.
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