{"id":482596,"date":"2025-10-08T09:32:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/482596\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T09:32:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T09:32:16","slug":"i-turned-down-real-madrid-and-barcelona-transfer-for-liverpool-and-im-glad-i-did","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/482596\/","title":{"rendered":"I turned down Real Madrid and Barcelona transfer for Liverpool and I&#8217;m glad I did"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse has revealed the decision he had to make before moving to Anfield<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1_GettyImages-2216774595.jpg\" alt=\"Former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse\" loading=\"eager\"  \/>Former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse(Image: Daniel Derajinski\/Icon Sport via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"liverpoolecho\">Former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse has revealed he turned down approaches from Barcelona and Real Madrid to make good his promise on moving to Anfield. Cisse became a club record signing for the Reds when he switched from Auxerre for \u00a314.5million in July 2004.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"liverpoolecho\">While his time at <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/all-about\/liverpool-fc\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Liverpool<\/a> was hampered by injury, Cisse contributed 24 goals in 79 games and netted a penalty in the Champions League final win over AC Milan in 2005, twice in the UEFA Super Cup triumph against CSKA Moscow later that year and was also on target in the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/all-about\/fa-cup\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">FA Cup<\/a> final success against West Ham United the following season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"liverpoolecho\">And the former France international &#8211; whose son Prince is starring for Liverpool&#8217;s under-18 side &#8211; has no regrets over sticking to his word and moving to Merseyside rather than Spain.<\/p>\n<p>READ MORE: <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/sport\/football\/football-news\/federico-chiesa-strong-message-sent-32632765\" data-tmdatatrack=\"read-more\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"32632765\" data-tmdatatrack-source=\"editorial\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Federico Chiesa gives Liverpool same thing Sadio Mane did, I think he deserves a run<\/a>READ MORE: <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/sport\/football\/football-news\/alexis-mac-allister-liverpool-transfer-32626190\" data-tmdatatrack=\"read-more\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"32626190\" data-tmdatatrack-source=\"editorial\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Alexis Mac Allister problem identified as Liverpool changes have &#8216;fried his head&#8217;<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"liverpoolecho\">\u201cI nearly signed for Barcelona and Real Madrid in the summer of 2004,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"liverpoolecho\">\u201cHowever, I turned those offers down in favour of a move to Liverpool.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"liverpoolecho\">&#8220;That season I scored 26 goals at Auxerre so there was a lot of clubs interested in signing me that summer, but I wanted the move to <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/all-about\/anfield\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Anfield<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"liverpoolecho\">\u201cI had given my word to Liverpool, and I didn\u2019t want to go back on that agreement. Of course, it would have been great to line up at the Camp Nou or the Bernabeu alongside the talent there was there at the time, but I had already had some good conversations with the club and I was happy to sign for Liverpool.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\" publication=\"liverpoolecho\"><a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pokerstrategy.com\/\" target=\"_self\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Speaking to Poker Strategy,<\/a> Cisse added: \u201cLiverpool are a great club and it was one of the best nights of my career to win the <a class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.liverpoolecho.co.uk\/all-about\/uefa-champions-league\" target=\"\" aria-label=\"\" tabindex=\"0\" rel=\"noopener\">Champions League<\/a> in the way we did in Istanbul the following year, so I\u2019m very happy with the choice I made.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former Liverpool striker Djibril Cisse has revealed the decision he had to make before moving to AnfieldFormer Liverpool&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8815],"tags":[748,393,4884,179,763,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-482596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-liverpool","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-great-britain","11":"tag-liverpool","12":"tag-liverpool-fc","13":"tag-uk","14":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115337858304494156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=482596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/482596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=482596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=482596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=482596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}