Few players turn down the lure and grandeur of Real Madrid.
The 15-time European Cup winners are widely regarded at the most prestigious club in world football.
Jermaine Pennant was approached by Real Madrid during his time at LiverpoolGettyKylian Mbappe famously turned down Real Madrid’s advances in 2022 but even he couldn’t resist when a second opportunity to move to the Spanish capital came his way last summer.
Trent Alexander-Arnold, Dean Huijsen and Antonio Rudiger are just a few of the names to have swapped English football for the chance to represent Los Blancos in recent times.
However, former Premier League winger Jermaine Pennant thought better of a move to the Bernabeu in what would have been a blockbuster switch at the time.
Pennant represented 15 different clubs during his career including Arsenal, Birmingham, Stoke and Liverpool.
But unlike Alexander-Arnold, a Real Madrid side led by ex-Tottenham boss Juande Ramos were unable to get their hands on the former England under-21 star who wasn’t exactly moved at the prospect of leaving Liverpool to play for the European giants.
“A lot of people don’t know this but Jermaine Pennant could have gone to Real Madrid,” Pennant’s agent Sky Andrew told The Sports Bar on Wednesday.
“[Former Liverpool chief executive] Rick Parry called me up and he said to me, ‘are you sitting down?’ So I said ‘yes’.
“He said: ‘We’ve agreed a fee with Real Madrid for Jermaine.’
“Pennant was just one of those people, his dream was to go to Liverpool and when he messed that up, there was nowhere else to go.
“So I rang him and said ‘Jermaine, Liverpool have agreed a fee for you to go to Real Madrid.’
O’Hara facepalmed after learning of Pennant’s refusal to join Real Madrid“He said: ‘What’s the money’.
“I said to him: ‘They’re sending a private jet for you to go over there.’
“He was like ‘Oh right, yeah.’
“Underwhelming. I wish we would have done that deal,” Andrew added.
Sports Bar co-host Jamie O’Hara appeared stunned at the idea that Pennant would nonchalantly rebuff Madrid’s advances and probed Andrew on why he opted to stay at Anfield.
“The narrative I got from the club (Real Madrid) is they were just looking for someone as backup to sit on the bench,” Andrew explained.
Pennant left Liverpool in 2009 for Real Zaragoza before returning to the Premier League with StokeAFP“The more I said it to Jermaine, the more he said ‘no, I’m not sitting on the bench.’
“He’s a nightmare when he’s not playing. In the end they signed someone from West Ham who didn’t play a game in the second half of the season.
“If Jermaine had gone there and not played, it would have been a disaster.”
Asked what Pennant was like to represent during his career, Andrew joked: “He drove me to drink, and I don’t drink.
“But nobody loves him more than me. I’ve been his agent for 25 years.”
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