Joining Real Madrid should be the opportunity of a lifetime, yet for some players the pressure and other issues that come with playing for Los Blancos make it almost like a poisoned chalice, as was the case with Hamit Altintop.
The Turkish midfielder was brought in by Jose Mourinho in 2011, however the Portuguese coach did not react well when Altintop begged him to let him leave, stating that he could take it no more.
"Are you crazy? You want to leave Real Madrid? It is not possible, but how can you think that?" Jose Mourinho exclaimed when Altintop had come into the coach's office.
For Altintop, though, it is not a spell in his career that he regretted.
"Real Madrid was very important to me," the 36-year-old told MARCA.
"It was a decisive step in my career. I love the club, the city, the president [Florentino Perez], Jose Angel [Sanchez], but I couldn't go on."
"I arrived and you see yourself there with [Cristiano] Ronaldo, [Iker] Casillas, [Gonzalo] Higuain, [Karim] Benzema, [Sami] Khedira... and you start to feel the responsibility to do well," he noted.
"You're in a hurry and my back did not let me. For three months I was just looking to train without pain."
"He's great. I really like him as a coach, he's one of the best," he stated.
"In the dressing room he's different. Nothing to do with what he seems like. He gets along with the players, defends them and gives a face to the group.
"I know that it seemed different from afar, but he knows how to handle everything around the team very well, which he forces to compete all the time."
"Mourinho did a great job, but I have great respect for [Zinedine] Zidane," he affirmed.
One of Altintop's best friends at Real Madrid was Cristiano.
"It is logical that a team suffers when a player like that leaves," he added.
"The same will happen to Barcelona with [Lionel] Messi."