CHENNAI: Philippe Coutinho is tipped to become the third most expensive player in the world when his proposed move from Liverpool to Barcelona takes place. Little known fact, the Brazilian could have made a switch to Real Madrid for as little as 2.5 million euros back in 2008. There is an Indian connection to this tale as well. Current Delhi Dynamos coach Miguel Angel Portugal was the Technical Director at Real Madrid back then. Miguel went to Brazil personally to meet Coutinho.
The Spaniard was so impressed with what he saw that he spoke to Coutinho as well as his parents about moving to the Spanish capital. “I had my eyes fixed on Coutinho. He was a great talent and I immediately recommended his name to the Real Madrid board,” Miguel told Express.
The former midfielder was in for a surprise once he came back from his scouting trip. The club went ahead and signed a Brazilian called Alipio in Coutinho’s stead for the same amount. Scouts had seen something in the player and the board decided to overlook the current Liverpool man. “It was evident back then that Alipio did not possess the quality that Coutinho had. Alipio was young and people expected great things from him,” the 62-year-old revealed.
The rest as they say is history! The promising 16-year-old Coutinho moved to Serie A giants Inter, who ended up signing him for 2m euros. He then shined for Liverpool in the Premier League, attracting interest from Barcelona. He is now thought to be worth a staggering 170m euros. Alipio, meanwhile, has endured a nomadic and mediocre career to date.
There is another interesting tale about the former La Liga winner. In November 2008, Miguel was set to take over at Los Blancos as coach following the sacking of Bernd Schuster, but president Ramón Calderón preferred Juande Ramos instead.
“At that moment, I said no because I was on very good terms with Schuster. I didn’t want to make it look like I was after his post. Because of that, I feel that was not the moment. It was for me a very very difficult decision because for all coaches, Real Madrid is the top job.”
ayantan@newindianexpress.com