Former Liverpool winger Jermaine Pennant has revealed he almost signed for Real Madrid, but the move was blocked by manager Juande Ramos.
Pennant was in the final year of his Liverpool deal and was about to agree a pre-contract with the Spanish giants in January 2009.
However, the move angered then-manager Juande Ramos, and the former Spurs boss pulled the plug on Pennant's dream move.
Instead, he ended up moving to Portsmouth in a six-moth loan deal before his contract at Anfield expired.
Speaking on talkSPORT, Pennant detailed the move and revealed how close he came to moving to the Bernabeu.
'I was going to sign a pre-contract with Real Madrid in the January,' Pennant admitted.
'I think the manager at the time was the ex-Spurs manager, Juande Ramos.
My agent got the call saying Real Madrid need a right midfielder, and straight away I was like 'what?', 'really?
I was like 'I am free, I will do that', even if it meant that I had to sit on the bench.
That was all okay, they spoke with the president, but it went above Ramos' head, he had no idea about it.
Once it got to finalising, he was upset that they had gone above him and not told him, obviously doing the deal behind his back.
So, he said he was not happy with this, and did not want this sanctioned, and then it did not materialise.'
While at Fratton Park, Pennant played 13 times for Pompey without finding the net and wasn't offered a new deal upon his return to Anfield.
Pennant did eventually end up in Spain that year, however, joining Real Zaragoza on a one-year deal at the start of the 2009-10 season.
He'd later return to the Premier League with Stoke City and then had spells with Wigan and Bury and short stints in India and Singapore, before retiring in 2019.