Jose Mourinho said it was difficult to convince Paul Pogba to join Manchester United this summer.

Real Madrid was also interested in Pogba but less willing to pay the transfer fee Juventus sought for him as United ultimately paid $123 million.

"Oh! It was hard to convince him," Mourinho told Goal. "I had many [conversations] on the phone, lots of SMS. I think he was getting one in the morning from the manager from another big club and one in the afternoon from myself. I had to try hard to convince him to choose us instead of the other one."