Nacho Fernandez Reveals Offers That He Turned Down And Explains Real Madrid Stay
Real Madrid’s soon to be captain Nacho Fernandez has revealed just how close he was to leaving the club this summer.
The 33-year-old defender has become part of the furniture at Real Madrid over the last decade, since he first made the jump into the first team. Ever since he has been a rotational option, but one of the finest in Europe.
This season it appeared there was far more speculation over his future, but ultimately Nacho elected to remain.
“I go hand in hand with my club and with my family. There are always offers from abroad, but I have decided to stay for another year. I’m happy about it and looking forward to continuing,” he told Cadena Cope, as per Relevo.
He revealed that he had multiple options to leave, and good ones too.
“I am happy to continue here for another year. I have made a good decision, we are going for everything. For me the important thing has always been to feel important in the club. It is not the quantity, but the quality. It is difficult to make the decision to leave when you see all the games you’ve played. There have been offers from Europe, from Arabia, from the MLS that I really like… The easiest decision was to stay in Madrid.”
And admitted that in his ideal world, he would retire at the Santiago Bernabeu, provided the circumstances were correct.
“I have the one club man thing in my head. If next year I still feel just as good, I’ll extend another year. I would love to retire here, but not in any way. Being important, playing a lot of games and minutes…”
The reason for that speculation was the fact that in the first half of the season, Nacho had seen his role significantly reduced with the arrival of Antonio Rudiger. However injuries to David Alaba and Ferland Mendy in the second half of the season allowed him to return to the side.
“January to June the tune changed completely. Before it was different, I felt that they were not being fair to me. But in the end I ended up playing more games than other seasons even. I felt that I was having one of the best years of my career and I saw that at the beginning of the season they were not being fair to me, it seemed that when I played they were giving it to me. I believed that I deserved more minutes, it was a feeling that I had inside. My head thought the time had come.”
Once back in the side, Nacho demonstrated again that he is one of the best defenders at their disposal, and a valuable asset. However it is not difficult to see something similar happening again next campaign, if all of the defence remains fit. With three players fighting for the central defensive spots, and Eduardo Camavinga showing his prowess at left-back, each position has cover that likely starts ahead of Nacho.
