Benzema turned down United and Barca
Updated on 10 July 2009
Karim Benzema has revealed he rejected advances from Barcelona and Manchester United before moving to Real Madrid.
Benzema established himself as one of Europe's hottest properties during his time at Lyon, scoring 54 competitive goals in the last two seasons, and he was regularly linked with a move away from France.
Madrid won the race for the 21-year-old French international after having a £30 million bid accepted by Lyon last week, but while Benzema insists the Spanish giants were always his top choice, he confirmed they were not his only suitors.
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.
"Real Madrid are an excellent club. I've dreamt about playing here since I was 15 years old.
"Florentino 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."
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