Manchester City midfielder Samir Nasri has claimed he could have moved to Real Madrid when he was still playing for Marseille.
The 27-year-old began his career at his hometown club before making the switch to the FA Cup holders in 2008 for a fee of around 16 million euros.
But speaking to Le10SPort, the France international claimed things could have been different had it not been for then Marseille president Papa Diouf.
Nasri said:“An interest from Real Madrid? There were some negotiations for me in the past. Pape Diouf, who was Marseille President at the time, said that a player would be allowed to leave.
“In the end it was Franck Ribery, who signed for Bayern Munich, so I had to stay at Marseille another year and then I went to Arsenal.”
Nasri played 166 times for his hometown club before moving to the Emirates Stadium. In his first two seasons in north London he did very little to convince the Gunners faithful that he could be the long-term replacement for Robert Pires. In his final season though, he had a decent spell before bottling numerous chances in big games – most notably the 2011 Carling Cup final. Unwilling to take any responsibility for his part in the team’s failure to win trophies at that time, he requested a transfer to City, claiming he wanted to be at a big club.
How evr samir nasri is a great player in de world he is playing well nd he lose hs opportunity. In addition samir nasri lost hs future when real madrid shows their interest against him nd he reject the offer, However he maybe a madrid player nd he may not. Every great player in de world wish 2 see hs dream becomes true when he played real madrid.