David Beckham has revealed he wanted to stay at Real Madrid longer than he did and had agreed a four-year extension with the club before it was scuppered.
The ex-England captain played for Los Blancos from 2003 to 2007 winning the Spanish Supercopa and La Liga titles in his time with the club.
His move to the MLS with LA Galaxy was widely seen as an attempt to earn a final big payday before retiring – he earned close to 150 million euros in his five years in the US.
But in quotes published by Marca, the 40-year-old said he wanted to remain in Spain and only left because Florentino Perez left the club and the deal was pulled.
“My heart will always be Madrid. I had four wonderful years. There’s a lot I enjoyed in my career and it’s very difficult to choose one moment, but when I walked into the locker room and saw Raul, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, Luis Figo and Roberto Carlos, it was a special moment,” he commented.
And he stated: “And then, when we won the league, of course, that was a special moment. I had a contract for four years and had talks with Florentino Perez to renew for another four, but Florentino left and there was no agreement with the new president. I wanted to stay but when Florentino left, everything went wrong.”
