Manchester City would "open the doors" to Lionel Messi if he ever decided to leave Barcelona, according to chief executive Ferran Soriano.
The Argentina international striker showed why City boss Pep Guardiola believes he is the best player in the world after his hat trick in the 4-0 victory over his side in the Champions League on Wednesday.
It's an opinion shared by former Barca chief executive Soriano, who knows the 28-year-old from his time at the Nou Camp, but he expects Messi to finish his career with Barca and denied reports in Spain that City had made a move for him in the summer.
"Messi is the best player in the world. If one day he wants to come to City, we would open the doors wide for him," Soriano was quoted by Spanish newspaper Marca as saying.
"We didn't call him. The natural thing for Messi is to finish his career in Barcelona."
Soriano also denied reports in Mundo Deportivo that claimed City tried to sign Luis Suarez, Neymar and Sergio Busquets as well as Messi.
He said the club maintain a good relationship with Barca president Josep Bartomeu and that agents had been trying to put together deals between the two clubs.
"We haven't made any offers to any Barcelona players," Soriano added. "What usually happens is that there are agents that call Barca who say they have an offer from City and after, Barcelona call us to ask if it's true.
"With Barca we talk often. We have a good relationship with Bartomeu.
"Before the summer we met [with Bartomeu] and we spoke about the players that were of interest to us so that agents didn't trick us."
Guardiola admitted ahead of Wednesday's Group C clash that they had tried to sign goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen in the summer before eventually signing his teammate Claudio Bravo.