10 Players You Didn't Know Real Madrid Almost Signed

7. Paul Pogba

Since Manchester United foolishly let go the future Golden Boy winner of the 2014 World Cup, Paul Pogba has gone from strength to strength, being repeatedly linked with the Spanish capital. Blessed with pace, power and a maturity to his play unbecoming of his 21 years age of age, it would come as no shock whatsoever if Real Madrid parted with £50 million in the morning to prize him away from the Stadio del Alpi. However, if reports are to be believed, they could have had him for a pittance. According to Spanish newspaper El Confidencial, Pogba had been made available to the club by his agent Mino Raiola, whilst on the books at Manchester United. With a move having been agreed between the three parties, the transfer was scuppered at the last moment due to Pogba€™s apparent wage demands. With Pogba holding out for a salary in the region of ‚1.5 million a season, Madrid chiefs baulked at the teenager€™s temerity and allowed him to rot in the Manchester United reserves for another three years, before he was finally allowed to spread his wings in Turin. If these reports are true, then perhaps the hierarchy at the Bernabeu who had deemed the Frenchman€™s demands as excessive for a boy of his age, might now be thinking differently, with Pogba having performed admirably on the international stage for France in the World Cup this year.