Toni Kroos has revealed that the chance to move to Real Madrid was the only thing that stopped him moving to Manchester United in 2014.
After six years in the Bayern Munich first team it became clear that Kroos was set to leave the Allianz Arena that summer, ahead of him taking part in the World Cup.
David Moyes was strongly linked with a move for the Germany midfielder at Manchester United but the Scotsman was sacked before the end of the season and the move never happened. Kroos has now revealed how close he came to moving to Old Trafford.
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"Manchester had a lot of interest in me before the World Cup and a deal was close," the Real midfielder told the Lauschangriff Podcast.
"Then my agent called me and told me about Real Madrid, and when Real Madrid appear you put Manchester behind them in the line.
"At the World Cup Joachim Low asked me if I was leaving for Madrid, so I told him about it and he was happy for me to negotiate things during the tournament."
Rumour has had it previously that Moyes' replacement Louis van Gaal had decided not to sign Kroos but the midfielder's view is clearly that he made the decision.
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He moved to the Bernabeu for around €30 million, with the move being made official just four days after Kroos and his fellow countrymen won the World Cup.
He has gone on to play 277 games for Los Blancos so far and has won three Champions League titles and two La Liga titles, as well as a few other cup competitions.
United on the other hand have won the Europa League, FA Cup and League Cup once each since then, proving Kroos might well have been right.
Despite winning 23 major titles in his club career, as well as the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, where he was named in the competition's Dream Team and named Germany player of the year that year, one fan took to Twitter earlier this week to call Kroos 'overrated.'
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The 30-year-old took it in good humour though and simply replied asking him not to tell anyone.
He'd probably have got a lot more abuse if he'd moved to Old Trafford instead of the Bernabeu, and ended with far fewer titles to his name.
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