There have been, are and will be players who will say ‘no’ to the great clubs in Europe, such as Real Madrid or Barcelona. One of those was the Dutch Bert Konterman who has now confessed that he had an offer from Real Madrid in 1999 and rejected it for not wanting to learn Spanish.
Konterman played central defense at Feyenoord and after shining with the Dutch team in several games, Real Madrid wanted to sign him. The former player discussed this chapter of his life on the Talkin Fitbaw Podcast. “Real Madrid offered $ 20 million to Feyenoord for me. Leo Beenhakker He was my coach and I had trained Real Madrid three years earlier. He came to me and said ‘Real Madrid loves you,’ I said ‘No, you’re kidding, I don’t believe you.’ So he said: ‘I want you to stay at Feyenoord, but I imagine you want to go to Real Madrid because it is a fantastic club.’ ”
However, Konterman He said ‘no’ to Real Madrid and not for sporting reasons, but for fear of a change in culture and language. “I always thought that my next team should have been in Germany or Great Britain because I spoke German very well and spoke English quite well, so Spain was a little scary because I was a little nervous about that great move to a club like Real Madrid ”, he said, to add that“I was a little nervous to learn Spanish, I think as a human being at that time I was not ready to make that move to Real MadridThen it was kind of stupid of me because they were really interested. “
Real Madrid’s interest was real, as he explained Konterman who revealed that “the president of Real was already in Holland for the final negotiations to reach an agreement, but I said to coach Leo Beenhakker ‘I want to stay in Feyenoord, I am happy here.’
Of course, Konterman recognized that ” I kept all the articles that appeared in the newspapers in case someone did not believe it” Konterman stayed at Feyenoord and a year after he left for the Glasgow Rangers where he spent three years and ended up retiring at Vitesse in 2004.
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