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Djibril Cisse Reckons Zinedine Zidane Asked Him To Join Real Madrid In 2002

Djibril Cisse Reckons Zinedine Zidane Asked Him To Join Real Madrid In 2002

The France forward would eventually move to Liverpool and the Premier League but claims that he was wanted in Spain.

Ryan Sidle

Ryan Sidle

There is a culture of people coming up with outlandish stories on social media that usually get 1000s of retweets even though they sound too good to be true. Djibril Cisse has seemingly joined the trend.

You've all read the kind of thing by now, it's often a writer tweeting about the incredible thing they said like, "I asked my seven year old daughter what she wanted for dinner tonight and she said 'to end world poverty,' the whole restaurant applauded," that kind of nonsense.

Of course the incredible engagement will be half full of people wanting to believe it's true and not even pausing to question the truth, heck it's on social media and I want to like it, and half people mocking or calling the story out to be nothing but lies.

That's basically half of all tweets that go viral these days, with the other half being a Scottish person asking if you remember cereal in a way that makes it near impossible to understand the tweet. Who doesn't remember cereal?!

Anyway that's not really got too much to do with sport but former Liverpool forward Djibril Cisse certainly does.

According to Cisse, speaking to RMC via Get French Football, he was once asked by Zinedine Zidane to move to Real Madrid, and the whole restaurant cheered. The former Auxerre forward said:

"In my final year at Auxerre, I had already signed a pre-contract with Liverpool. And in 2002, during the Japan & South Korea World Cup, I get settled in my room with Sylvain (Wiltord). I am in my room all alone at this point, and I hear a knock on the door. It is Zizou (Zidane) and I am like "oh no, what have I done, I am 20, I have only just arrived, why me."

"He says 'sit down I need to speak with you.' Zizou says that at Real Madrid we are interested in you, that we want you to come and play for us. I look at him, I say honestly, 'I don't know how to say no to you, but I have already signed a pre-contract... and even in training (at Real Madrid) I wouldn't be good enough to be in the squad, look who was playing then.'

"I thought it was impossible if I joined Real Madrid, I would stop my progress. Van Nistelrooy was still there. I didn't think it was the right club for me. I signed for Liverpool. People speculated a lot and said I could have joined a better club."

Cisse celebrates his Champions League final penalty. Image: PA Images
Cisse celebrates his Champions League final penalty. Image: PA Images

Look, Cisse was a very good player for Auxerre and he wasn't the El Hadji Diouf shaped mistake in Liverpool's frontline around that time but I'm struggling to believe that Real were that desperate for him they sent Zidane in to tap him up on international duty.

The French forward struggled at Liverpool because of two nasty leg breaks whilst at Anfield and finished with 13 goals in just 49 league appearances.

He was unlucky to never reached the heights he might have done if it weren't for injury.

Still though at least he'll get the social media activity his story deserves.

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Topics: Liverpool, Football News, Premier League, England, Zinedine Zidane, Transfer news, Spain, France, Real Madrid, La Liga