Former French football player Cristian Karembeu (38) talked in an interview with Spanish sports paper Don Balón about the fight for his services between Barcelona and Real Madrid before he joined the latter in December 1997:
"The fight between Real Madrid and Barcelona to sign me was total madness. It was the first time that two big clubs wanted to sign me and at that time I wasn't aware of the impact of the whole matter. I only thought about playing football and nothing else.
I had played the European championships in 1996 and I wanted to continue in that line. That fight put a little brake on my career since Sampdoria, my club at the time, excluded me from the squad and I went through a bad time.
Would I have preferred to join Barcelona? Let’s see, at that time the possibilities were playing for Barca or playing for Real Madrid. I chose Barça, I’m sorry: Madrid, but I had a lot of respect for Barcelona's executives when they came to see me. Barcelona is a great club and now they look strong and victorious. Everyone wants to play at Barça, a club that – by its culture – likes to offer good football to the people."
Read more:
Transfer history: Denilson (Palmeiras)
Transfer history: Enzo Francescoli
Transfer history: Gianluigi Buffon (Juventus)
Tuesday, 14 April 2009
Transfer history: Cristian Karembeu (Sampdoria)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
1 comment:
I remeber vaguely that this was like the worst Barcelona vs Real Madrid transfer clash since the Di Stefano case.
You feel he would have preferred Barcelona. He's more of a Barça kind a guy too, never having wanted to sing the French anthem because some of his family members were mistreated.
Post a Comment