Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo came 'very close' to playing each other in an All-Stars super-match at Wembley Stadium.
Messi and Ronaldo dominated world football at the peak of their powers.
They have won a combined 13 Ballon d'Or titles between them and shared a legendary rival in Spain's La Liga.
And a game between Ronaldo and Messi - where they would have hand-picked the global starting XIs - was proposed in 2014, according to The Sun.
Advert
Robert Bonnier, a former dotcom multi-millionaire, made an approach to Messi and Ronaldo's camps about his ambitious project that would have been staged in London, England, at Wembley Stadium.
At the time of the proposal, Messi and Ronaldo were both in Spain, with Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively.
Bonnier was desperate to establish a game every other year in Europe that would have pitted Team Messi against Team Ronaldo and would have included the world's best players.
Both parties seemed to be interested after a proposed budget of around £90 million was put forward, which included match fees and bonuses.
Wembley Stadium was chosen as the venue for the game, with Messi and Ronaldo to be kitted out in their own sponsors - Adidas for the Argentine and Nike for the Portuguese.
If it had gone ahead as initially planned for 2017, then the idea was to run it outside of the World Cups and European Championships and make it look like a music festival rather than a friendly match.
The businessman wanted bands, laser shows and - wait for it - a boxing fight to finish if off.
Per the report, the All-Stars game failed to transpire due to the sheer number of invested parties and the football politics involved.
For example, Real president Florentino Perez wanted a whopping £21 million for any of his players to be involved.
TV producer David Piper, who was hired by Bonnier to make it happen, said at the time: "An All-Star game is the last great frontier for football. We were very close."
Topics: Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Football
Nasir Jabbar