The world's greatest living footballer, Lionel Messi (apologies to Jimmy Bullard and his fans) might have been forced to stay at Barcelona for now – but is there still hope that the final glorious years of his career could be spent at Priestfield Stadium with the mighty Gills?

A ridiculous dream? Perhaps, but sport's all about ridiculous dreams, and if it wasn't for the dream of a boy from Strood, Messi would probably not have a career at all, so maybe he owes Medway a few 50-goal seasons.

But it's not just Messi. Gabriel Batistuta, Mauricio Pochettino, Maxi Rodriguez, Marcelo Bielsa, and hundreds more Argentinian players and managers started their career at a club named in honour of Isaac Newell from Strood – namely Newell's Old Boys.

Even the great Diego Maradonna wore the club's shirt towards the end of his career, and it's arguable that every Argentinian footballer to have played the game owes some thanks to Mr Newell, a man who set out seeking adventure at the age of 16, in 1869, from Taylor's Lane in Strood, and ended up pioneering the beautiful game in Argentina.

Well done that man – although some of us who remember June 22, 1986, not to mention a few other dates, might wish he'd stayed at home.

The less churlish of us though, would accept Mr Newell did a great thing for world sport, and that his vision ultimately brought dazzling Argentinian flair and skill to football that the world might otherwise have never witnessed.

All of which makes it strange that the name of Isaac Newell is not better known among English football fans and within his home town, and yet, perhaps that's all about to change.

Back in Argentina, every football fans knows the name of Newell's Old Boys, one of the oldest clubs in the country – founded in Isaac Newell's memory by his son Claudio Newell in 1903 – and now a long-standing fixture in the top flight of Argentine football.

And one of those fans in particular has taken on the mission of spreading the news of how an Englishman brought the beautiful game to his country, and led to the formation of the club he loves.

Enter Alejandro Conta, a Newell's Old Boys fan, writer and photographer who last year made a pilgrimage to the birthplace of Isaac Newell in Strood, and who has recently translated the story of his journey – originally published in Spanish on Newell’s Old Boys’ official website, and addressed to the people of the club's town of Rosario.

"The year is 1869..." writes Alejandro, "and after crossing half of the world, a 16-year-old boy gets off a ship and knocks on a door, holding a recommendation letter in his hand. He gets a job, studies, becomes an English teacher, founds a school, and leaves an indelible legacy in the history of world football. The character is Isaac Newell and the city, Rosario."

So begins the tale, which can be read here, but the story also belongs to another Kent man, Adrian Pope from Cranbrook, who met Alejandro for a guided tour around Strood, and took him to Isaac Newell's home street of Taylors Lane.

"He pointed towards an elderly woman closing a door, in this short street meters away from the River Medway," Alejandro continues. "It looked like, with time, this street had become an alley. We were standing where Isaac Newell was born. It was simply incredible to imagine that if that person had never existed, the life of many of us would have been so different. The chain of events that resulted in me standing there was overwhelming."

Such passion for a small street in Strood might strike most Medway and Kent folk as odd, but not Gills fan Adrian, who for the last 18 years has been devoted to the cause of raising Isaac Newell's profile and campaigning to get a bust of his hero erected by Strood riverside.

Now more than ever before he believes it's time Medway should recognise the contribution of Newell to world sport and understand the potential for bringing Argentinian tourists to Medway.

"In recent years I just thought this story is so brilliant," Adrian told the KM Group last week. "For me a bust of Isaac Newell would be a focal point.

"Newell's is on another level of what a club can be. Argentina is dominated by Buenos Aires, after that is Cordoba, and Rosario is the third city, where Newell's is based. Newell's say they are the greatest club of the interior.

"Newell's have got more than a quarter of a million likes on Facebook. If you've got a Newell's fan coming to the UK they would probably land in London and would almost certainly make a pilgrimage here to see a statue that commemorates their football club."

Adrian, is constantly looking to recruit new people for his cause, and believes his mission could even go some way to healing divisions between football fans, especially in Rosario where Newell's Old Boys fans have a deep-rooted and bitter rivalry with the city's other club Rosario Central.

He explained how a weird twist of synchronicity led to him to hatch a plan to bring football fans together.

"I was working with a guy from Dingwall, the home of Ross County FC," said Adrian. "He adopted the Gills as his team and I adopted Ross County. When I first saw them they were in the second tier of Scottish football.

"Later on I discovered the founder of Rosario Central, (Colin Calder) was from Dingwall."

That led to the idea of a match between Gillingham and Ross County – the home towns of the founders of the two Argentinian rivals.

"The combined interest of Newell's Old Boys and Central is 3/4million," adds Adrian. "The Newell's Old Boys club historian absolutely loves the idea of Gills playing Ross County to celebrate the links to the Argentine teams. You're looking at a massive event that could stimulate so much tourism, and maybe it could go some way to diffusing the hatred between the fans that exists there."

Well, we can but dream, and meanwhile the dream of Messi arriving in Medway to honour its contribution to his country, lives on.

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