What happened next? Five players Real Madrid tried and failed to sign | OneFootball

Liverpool are desperately trying to cling onto Trent Alexander-Arnold this summer. But they might have trouble with Real Madrid chasing the England international.

Alexander-Arnold joined Liverpool as a six-year-old and has become one of the club’s greatest academy success stories but his deal will expire at the end of the season following a stalemate in contract talks.

The right-back has won every nearly every major trophy available to him at Anfield — including the Premier League, Champions League, FA Cup, League Cup and Club World Cup – -and could now be ready for a new chapter elsewhere.

Reports have claimed Madrid are closing in on a free transfer for the 26-year-old but a move is not guaranteed, with the player facing a huge decision on his future.

Despite Madrid being arguably the most illustrious club on earth, there have been some big name players who have said no when Los Blancos have come calling. We’ve looked at a few below.

Francesco Totti

One of the greatest players of all time who remained fiercely loyal to Roma as a rare one-club man. Francesco Totti played 786 times for the Italian club and scored 307 goals and his incredible displays up front turned the heads of Real Madrid – who tried to lure him to the Santiago Bernabeu on numerous occasions.

In his autobiography, Totti claimed president Florentino Perez chased his signature in 2001 and offered him £10m a year to join them initially. That would have seen Totti become the highest-paid player in the world at the time and link up with the likes of Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Carlos and Luis Figo.

But, despite winning Serie A with Roma in 2000-01, Totti claimed he more to give his boyhood club and insisted going to the Spanish capital “wasn’t my story”. He spent another 16 years with Roma and went on to win three more trophies.

When asked if he regretted not signing for them, he said: “Certainly, looking back, thinking about the fact of saying no to Real Madrid, a little bit of doubt does remain.

“Real Madrid were the only other team that I could have gone to play for. The only team it could have been, I think. An experience in a different country could have been something beautiful for everyone. For my family. For me.”

Steven Gerrard

Another man who devoted his career to one club (a one-year stint with LA Galaxy aside). Alexander-Arnold may look at the example set by Steven Gerrard and feel he could follow in his footsteps by staying loyal to the club in the wake of huge interest from huge clubs.;

In fact, Gerrard was in the exact same position when Real Madrid came calling for him — once in 2005 and another in 2010, when Jose Mourinho was manager.

Interestingly enough, Mourinho had tried to sign Gerrard three times when he was at Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid — something Gerrard admits was hard to resist.

“When Jose Mourinho comes calling, it puts a player in a very difficult position,” he said. “I’d been at Liverpool from eight years of age and all my family are Reds and that the club means so much to me, so he [Mourinho] put me in a difficult position three times [at Chelsea, Inter Milan and Real Madrid].”

When explaining why he ultimately turned all those clubs down, Gerrard said: “I had offers from Real Madrid and Chelsea, but my heart was always with Liverpool. I never regretted my decision. If I could go back in time, I’d do the same.”

While he never managed to realise his dream of winning the Premier League, Gerrard did win the Champions League, two FA Cups and three EFL Cups with Liverpool.

Neymar

Both Real Madrid and Barcelona were leading the chase for the young Brazilian talent back in 2013. And Los Blancos were willing to go to huge lengths to snap up the talented teenager after offering him a salary package worth more than £100m.

However, the superstar forward eventually decided on a move to their bitter rivals Barcelona on a lower wage because he wanted to follow in the footsteps of Ronaldinho and play with Lionel Messi.

Neymar would go on to win two La Liga titles, three Copa del Rey trophies and the Champions League, scoring 105 goals in 186 appearances along the way before his move to Paris Saint-Germain.

Speaking to the Podpah podcast about the failed move to the Bernabeu, Neymar said: “Real Madrid’s offer was a blank check, they told me that I could have whatever I wanted.

“But I loved Barca with my heart. At Real Madrid I would have earned three times as much money. Florentino always liked me. But Ronaldinho had played there [at Barca] and I wanted to play with Messi.”

David de Gea

Manchester United thought they were about to lose their star goalkeeper to Real Madrid in 2015 and they nearly did… before a faulty fax machine scuppered the move.

David de Gea had a superb 2014-15 campaign that saw him named in the PFA Team of the Year and also won the Man Utd’s player of the season award, though he wasn’t able to win any silverware as the Red Devils suffered their first trophyless season since 2004-05.

He was tempted by the riches and success on offer at Madrid, who were looking to replace their long-serving shot-stopper Iker Casillas and the Spanish giants eventually agreed a £30m fee with Man Utd. De Gea looked nailed on to join them though the move went to the wire on deadline day — and it was called off after the relevant paperwork was submitted two minutes after the window shut.

Man Utd’s fax machine was blamed for this error as Madrid insisted they had done “everything necessary in every moment” to wrap up the move and said they had returned the contracts to the Premier League club at 9.32pm. However, they said Man Utd only returned the documents at 10.02pm.

But De Gea insisted he had no regrets about what was one of the most farcical transfer failings of all time, saying in 2022: “I don’t mind talking about that. I’m just thinking about Manchester. It’s my home. I feel very good here. It’s a privilege, it’s an honour to be here in this club. It’s one of the best things in my life, to be a part of this club.”

Roy Keane

Here’s a left-field story about a failed move to the Bernabeu that might go under the radar for most people. But Roy Keane very nearly became a Real Madrid player in 2005.

At the time, Keane was coming towards the end of his career at 34 years old after leaving Man Utd before being offered an 18-month deal to join Real Madrid’s Galacticos.

In the end, he decided to join boyhood club Celtic after being fearful that he wouldn’t make an impact in Spain — admitting he had regrets over the move because he was too negative. He would only go on to play 13 times for the Bhoys before retiring.

“It was the most attractive challenge in front of me, but I didn’t accept it,” he said in his autobiography. “I should have said to myself: ‘Go to Spain, live there for a year and a half, learn another language, learn the culture. You might end up loving it. You can stay there too’.

“I took a negative attitude, I think, instead of saying: ‘This is amazing, what a chance for me. It could have been great for my kids. Weather and training could have given me another contract and two more years of playing’. I could have picked up new techniques for myself. But on the contrary – as usual – I was looking at what could go wrong.”