Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, has insisted he would not be a good fit for Real Madrid, after it emerged that the Spanish giants tried to lure him to the Santiago Bernabeu last year.
This was revealed by the Spaniard’s friend and biographer, Marti Perarnau.
“Real Madrid called Pep Guardiola to try and tempt him last November, before they sacked Benitez,” he revealed on Spanish radio station Cadena Ser.
“Madrid contacted [Josep Maria] Orobitg, Guardiola’s agent, in order to try and contract him.
“But from the start it was out of the question. I was there”, he said.
Madrid eventually sacked Benitez in January 2016 and appointed Zinedine Zidane as their new manager. The Frenchman has since matched Guardiola, in winning the Champions League in his first season in charge .
Guardiola spent 10 seasons as a player at Barcelona and another four years as a manager, but was still seen as a possible replacement for Benitez, according to Perarnau.
Asked if it had been a possibility to move to Madrid, Guardiola told a news conference ahead of City’s game with West Brom on Saturday: “I’m a follower of FC Barcelona. I don’t think Real Madrid needs a manager like me and I wouldn’t fit there either.”
This week, United manager Jose Mourinho, admitted that living in Manchester has been “a bit of a disaster”, Guardiola said he was only worried about City’s six-game winless run.
“Yes [I like it] a lot. The last period I’m not happy as before because we don’t win but our lives don’t depend on the results,” he said. “[It spoils] a little bit how you live day-by-day because you have more worry about what you have to do to improve the team.
“But in general my kids are so happy in school, my wife as well. I work pretty good, I feel people try to take care of me. I’m so, so happy.”
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