According to the agent of Marco Borriello, Real Madrid tried to sign the Italian international prior to Tuesday’s transfer deadline day, but were scuppered because Karim Benzema refused a transfer to Marseille. Jose Mourinho recently expressed his disappointment at failing to bring a striker to Madrid this summer, not least because he harbours concerns about Benzema, who has been strongly linked with a move to Manchester United for the last two years.
Borriello eventually left AC Milan in favour of their Serie A rivals Roma, but things could have been a very different for the 28-year-old, had either Manchester City or Real Madrid successfully engineered a deal. The sensational transfer saga, revealed by Borriello’s agent Tiberio Cavalleri, may be of interest to Manchester United fans who were hoping for a second attemtp by Sir Alex Ferguson to sign Benzema having missed out last summer.
The 22-year-old rejected a move to Old Trafford in 2009 in a favour of big money deal to Real Madrid, but following an underwhelming spell at the Bernabeu, the former Lyon prodigy was again linked with a transfer to Premier League giants Manchester United in January and again in June. Instead Ferguson was relatively quiet during the summer with just Javier Hernandez, Chris Smalling and Bebe moving to Old Trafford.
According to Borriello’s agent, a move to Real Madrid was in place but Benzema was reluctant to leave Spain.
Cavalleri told Corriere dello Sport: “It could have ended differently,
“On Monday, I had a call from Mancini saying he wanted the player (Borriello) to go to Manchester City.
“On Tuesday, Real Madrid made an approach but then (Karim) Benzema said no to a move to Marseille and that's when Roma came into the picture.”