Believe it or not, only one club showed interest in signing Paul Scholes during his illustrious Manchester United career.
After making his first-team debut in a League Cup clash against Port Vale, the Salford-born midfielder would go on to make over 700 appearances for his boyhood club.
Scholes, who also made 66 appearances for his country, lifted 25 major trophies between 1993 and 2013, including 11 Premier League titles, two Champions Leagues and four FA Cup's.
Advert
He established himself as one of Europe's most respected players, especially in the late 90's and early 00's.
In fact, Italian giants Inter Milan expressed their interest in bringing him to the San Siro in 2000, although talks never managed to get off the ground.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, Scholes explained: "I was never ever made aware of any team coming in for me but I did have one phone call off Bryan Robson's old agent.
Advert
"He rang me while we were away at Euro 2000 to ask me if I would be interested in going to Inter Milan but that's the only phone call I ever had.
"I never heard anything after that and the manager never said anything to me. I was playing at my boyhood club, I was a Manchester lad, we were winning trophies all the time.
"If the manager said to me that he didn't want me I would definitely have gone if there was a big club abroad who wanted me but there was never any need to ever think about Barcelona, Real Madrid or AC Milan.
"I was already at the biggest club in the world anyway."
Former Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti said they tried "really hard" to sign Scholes, and even offered him £60,000-a-week to join.
Advert
A transfer fee of around £31 million was rumoured at the time but United were unwilling to part ways with one of their biggest assets and the rest, as they say, is history.
Scholes would later admit that his one career regret was not winning more Champions League trophies.
"We didn’t win as many Champions Leagues as we should have but we were every inch as good as those teams, if not better," he said.
SPORTbible are on WhatsApp! We've launched a dedicated news channel to send you the latest news, features and plenty more directly on WhatsApp and all you need to do to sign up is click through to our one-way broadcast channel here for 'SPORTbible News' to appear in the 'Updates' tab on your WhatsApp.
Featured Image Credit: Getty ImagesTopics: Paul Scholes, Manchester United, Premier League, Champions League, Serie A