Former Real Madrid chief Jorge Valdano has told Koke how he tried to sign him from Atletico Madrid.

The move from Real Madrid sparked fury at Atletico, who then put forward an agreement for Los Blancos to sign to deter the current Spanish champions from taking players away from their cross city rivals.

"I had the famous idea of signing you," Valdano said to Koke on Universo Valdano. "It was such an important move that it caused a meeting with [Miguel Angel] Gil Marin to sign a sort of non-aggression treaty, and the problem was you.

"He saw that we had enquired about you and he said that we couldn't do that, not with you."

Koke continued to look back on his younger days at Atleti, and confessed that he himself never could have expected to go on to achieve what he has.

"I trusted myself but I never thought to say that I was going to get into the first team," Koke said.

"I was 16, playing with guys who had children in the second team. My father told me that maybe I wasn't going to play much and that I had to be calm. Then I started playing and said that I have to play here."