Real Madrid made contact with Pep Guardiola in the run up to firing Rafa Benitez last season. Guardiola was reportedly their choice before Zinedine Zidane.

The negotiations didn't go anywhere and Real Madrid hired Zidane.

Guardiola soon thereafter agreed to join Manchester City for the 16-17 season.

“Real Madrid contacted Josep María Orobitg, Pep’s agent, to try and strike a deal,” Guardiola biographer Marti Perarnau told national radio station Cadena SER in a programme broadcast locally in Catalonia. “But from the start Pep dismissed it. I was there.”