Karim Benzema revealed he rejected advances from the likes of Champions League finalists Barcelona and Manchester United before opting for his "dream" move to Real Madrid.
Benzema established himself as one of Europe's hottest properties during his time at Lyon, for whom he scored 54 competitive goals in the last two seasons, and he was regularly linked with some of the continent's biggest clubs before Madrid has a 35million euros bid accepted for him last week.
When asked what other teams were keen on him, Benzema said: "There were quite a few clubs that contacted me like Manchester (United), Inter Milan and Barcelona, but I decided to come here."
He added: "Real Madrid are an excellent club. I've dreamt about playing here since I was 15 years old.
"Florentino (Madrid president Perez) spoke to me about the team and the project that he wanted to create. I wanted to play at Real Madrid anyway so he didn't have to convince me of hardly anything."
Benzema is the the fourth new arrival to be unveiled by the Spanish giants since Perez returned to the presidency at the start of June, following in the footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Raul Albiol.
An estimated 90,000 people turned up for Ronaldo's presentation at the Bernabeu on Monday, while around 55,000 were in attendance for Kaka's unveiling last week.
The amount of people that watched Benzema's presentation on Thursday night was considerably less than those two players, with around 20,000 in the stands, but the Frenchman was still delighted with his reception and immediately endeared himself to the fans by repeatedly kissing the Madrid badge.
"It was very exciting. Real Madrid fans have a special relationship with the players and I am very grateful for that," he said.
"I felt some strong emotions today and that's why I kissed the badge."
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#15.....HOP SO MATE MON AE HOOPS AND BARCA..........HAIL HAIL
benzema will regret not coming to manu.
listen up footy fans ! Colin hendrys Mrs just died spare a little thought for her before we start slaging each other off; eh !! sorry to hear about your loss Colin and kids, be strong.
From Liverpool.
Benzema says Man Utd wanted to sign him and we are all supposed to believe him...
What utter tosh!
Man Utd never made any approach for Benzema. that is the reality.
That he and his agent suggest otherwise is pure invention upon their parts...to talk up his marketability, presumably.
Benzema, the person, would be entirely unsuitable for a Man Utd player. He is the wrong sort altogether.
Footballing ability-wise, he could contribute nothing that our squad does not already possess in rich measure.
Its quite the thing lately for players, and their agents, to claim Man utd or Chelsea, Barcelona or whichever else club wanted to sign them...and the clubs have got far better things to do with trheir time than waste time refuting these tedious egotistical lies!
We should all disregard them. We should all ignore the media's willingness to publish the misleading rubbish. That, also, is the reality!
indonoob
So what you are basically saying is Benzima would not be good enough to play for Barca yet he is a great buy for Madrid?!?!
I think you could be right there BRAINSTORM !!
Why would he join a weakened Manchester United team? Man Utd are NOTHING without Ronaldo. The start of last season showed that United are absolutely nothing without him. And without Carlos Tevez as well. Funny isn't it? Man Utd only started going strong when Ronaldo started to improve. When Ronaldo is not playing, United are nothing but a mid level English side. Why would he go there? You replaced Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo with Michael Owen and Antonio Valencia. Brilliant. Liverpool for the title definitely. And Barcelona? Please. He's 3rd or 4th choice behind the likes of Eto'o, Henry, Messi and Bojan. Why would he go there. Best choice ever. Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema, Higuain = CHAMPIONS. Oh yeah, the reason why we could afford these kinds of players is because we don't have foreign owners buying our clubs, bringing with them over 1 billion euros in debt. Hala Madrid.
haha Bezema is just like one of those french standard dishes that carry a fabulous name like croissant au beurre avec tasse chocolat au lait which is just buttered bread with a cup of hot chocolate. Real madrid will soon realise that just like the french dishes, the good publicised French Bezema is just an average over rated high sounding nothing.
What is benzemas number?.............................ZERO
tony E - regardless of what was said below - they get thier money from Banking Satandar (they own abbey) not the royalty - the royal family made a decree to wipe out their old debt, but now they are racking more up!
real are like the spoilt kid at school - they buy all the marbles because they want no one else to have a marble to rival there collection, but then they dont use or take care of their marbles they have and always keep buying newer marbles. Benzema had a dream to collect a fat paycheck, win nowt, sit on the bench and work on his tennis or golf game.
he be used and abused and sold next season for 10million ,, cos real is not good for a football imrovement club, he just be another wealthy player on the bench and will learn nothing ,, but its his choice
Real Madrid have ruined football by buying Kaka,Ronaldo and Benzema.
We are in a credit crunch and they are spending millions on players.
They are going to win everything which will disappoint me as I am a Celtic and BARCELONA fan!
I am not happy.
He will go Hunterlar's way by the end of the season
ronaldo is only in it for money he is a scum bag r.i.p ronaldo good ridence man til i die up the red and down every 1 eles
Harry EFC Bilby, what? everton 4th? they always follow a great season with a bad one. 1st:chelsea(sadly) 2nd:manu 3rd:liverpool 4th:arsenal 5th,6th,7th:tottenham/man city/villa fulham and everton will fade out next year.
when he means "dream move" he clearly means "money move" asif you would turn down Barca or the manks or Inter to play for Real Madrid, Real might of been a good club when Zidan was there with Ronaldo and Beckham, but now, please lets be serious. Every single player that goes to Real Madrid if they are ofering over 100k a-week is cleary going for the money..
Look at Man City their doing the same apart from no one likes them because they havent won nothing, fair dues to Real though, they've won 7 Champs Leagues? Or is it 9? Can't remember exactly.. Judging on Recent form there more of a 5th finishing place in La Liga, can't see them getting 1st place though. Barca will remain Champions of Europe, Livepool will not finish 2nd next season.
1st. Man U
2nd. Chelsea
3rd. Liverpool
4th. Everton / Arsenal
5th. Arsenal / Aston Villa
Barca will be top in La Liga and Europe. Im almost certain of it. I'd love to see Ronaldo play AGAINST united, that would be the best moment ever seeing Van Der Sar get beat of his FK.
I'd Love It!
EVERTON FAN
This guy is the future!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What is benzemas number?
Liverpool for the title? Now when have i heard that before:-) I will give them credit they have come on a bit in the past few years but united were terrible last season, they did enough and no more to win in most of the games. In toadys terms there are a lot of clubs bigger than madrid like united, barca, liverpool, and chelsea; madrid seen this and are throwing money at the problem to change it.
He is going to kick himself when Barca beats Real and top the table again this season :)
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