Zinedine Zidane confirms Real Madrid tried to sign Paul Pogba

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has confirmed for the first time that the club did try to sign Paul Pogba over the summer.

The French midfielder signed for Manchester United in a deal which no one really says too much about, or mentio89ns the pri89ce of. But he could very easily have wound up at the Bernabeu rather than Old Trafford if his compatriot Zidane had had his way. Zidane told Radio Montecarlo that "There were conversations to try and sign him but it didn't go ahead," the Daily Mirror reports.

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Zidane was speaking to former international teammate Christophe Dugarry on the radio show, admitting that Pogba "could have come" to Madrid. But ultimately the Juventus star was coaxed to Manchester, where he made his professional debut as a teenager before moving to Turin in 2012. Zizou has been relatively quiet in the transfer market, certainly by the standards of some of his predecessors at Real Madrid. The club exercised their buy-back clause on Álvaro Morata over the summer, but Zidane has made good use of the existing squad so far this season - not least returning loanee Marco Asensio. In another world, Pogba could have been lining up against Eibar and Las Palmas instead of Southampton and Stoke City. We wonder if he feels like he's been missing out.