‘I Was ‘Real’ Close To Madrid’ – Oscar

‘I Was ‘Real’ Close To Madrid’ – Oscar

Brazilian international, Oscar has continued his excellent form this season at Stamford Bridge as he has managed to get into the good books of manager Jose Mourinho right from the time the boss took charge of Chelsea again. The Portuguese manager now bestows his trust in Oscar over others, and he is now as close to being an automatic starter for the Blues this season as is possible.

He has been the reason behind Juan Mata’s relegation to the bench, as he has replaced the Spaniard in that advanced play maker role. Mourinho is clearly a huge fan of Oscar, who has now revealed that he could have easily ended up signing for the Spanish giants of Madrid.

He spoke to Globoesporte and revealed that prior to Chelsea’s advances for him while he was still at his former club Internacional, he was close to signing for Spanish Galacticos, Real Madrid. He was playing in an international friendly game for Brazil against Denmark in May 2012 and watching him from the stands was Mourinho, who was still in charge of Real Madrid.

He was impressed with what he saw from Oscar, and immediately made up his mind of trying to acquire his services. Mourinho made it clear that he wanted to sign Oscar, however the talks did not progress much further as the Los Blancos were very well stocked in that department, as they had the likes of Luka Modric, Kaka and Mesut Ozil already in their ranks at the time. The addition of Oscar would not have done much for his career.

Soon after the negotiations collapsed, Chelsea came knocking and from there on, talks went smoothly and his move was sealed. He recently spoke to ESPNFC and told the story, “A month before signing for Chelsea I was very close to doing so with Real Madrid as Mourinho said he wanted me,”

“Before the game [against Denmark] there were talks with Madrid, but they had the playmaker position well covered. After that, I signed for Chelsea.”

When Mourinho rejoined Chelsea, he was delighted to be managing Oscar, who he had really wanted. The fact that Oscar now is Mourinho’s first-choice at Chelsea makes all the more sense.