10 Players Who Rejected Real Madrid

Back in the summer of 2004, Patrick Vieira had just come off the back of captaining Arsenal to their greatest achievement ever: going through a whole top-flight season unbeaten. Although with France he couldn’t inspire them to similar heights as they crashed out of Euro 2004 to eventual winners Greece, it was clear that Vieira was a prized asset to anyone who could manage to sign him.

Around the same time as the Championships, across the border from Portugal, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez was planning to swoop in for the then-28-year-old to replace Claude Makelele, who had joined Chelsea the previous summer, in a reported £23million deal.

According to Vieira in an interview for an ITV documentary:

“I was really close to leaving for Madrid the year before I left. The deal was done between the two clubs so when it was time to leave, I changed my mind because I believed that I wanted to stay at Arsenal, I wanted to finish my career”.

Vieira cited a lack of courage for the decision to remain in North London

In an interview with the Mirror, Perez indeed confirmed that Real missed out on the Frenchman.

Eventually, after a further season at the North London outfit, where he once again captained them to silverware – the 2005 FA Cup – the Frenchman left in order to sign for the Italian giants Juventus.