Valencia defender Ivan Helguera has hit out at the way he was treated by the Real Madrid hierarchy during his last season at the club.

Helguera spent eight years at the reigning Spanish champions, between 1999 and 2007, before moving to Los Che in the summer. In that time he won three Liga titles and two Champions Leagues.

However, Helguera believes that he was forced out during his final season at the Santiago Bernabeu by new president Ramon Calderon and sporting director Predrag Mijatovic.

The 32-year-old former Spain international said: "They took away my squad number and made my life impossible by telling me that I would play again. They said that I would never wear the Real Madrid shirt again. They wanted me to leave as quickly as possible.

"It was not fair after I had spent eight years at the club and helped the team win everything.

"I was struggling against things that were not to do with football."

Calderon became the full-time replacement for previous president Florentino Perez after winning club elections in July 2006, and it soon became clear that, despite making 23 appearances in the league-winning season, he saw no place for Helguera at the club

"I just did not want to continue fighting against people that are not part of Real Madrid," the former Roma and Espanyol continued.

"For me, they are people that are at Real Madrid, but they are not what it stands for, they are not people that go to the games or people that feel deeply, like me, about Madrid.

"These are people that look at other things and I did not want to stay and continue going against them, I just wanted to play."

Tony Mabert / Eurosport