Agent Yvan La Mee admits Real Madrid wanted to sign Antonio Valencia when he was with Wigan Athletic.

In the end, Valencia joined Manchester United, while Real took Julien Faubert on-loan from West Ham back in January 2009.

"He was not the first choice. The last day of the transfer market Madrid wanted to sign Wigan 's Antonio Valencia. However, they failed to find an agreement.

"We found ourselves at the hotel waiting, waiting, waiting and thinking 'I hope negotiations go wrong with Valencia'.

"At the end of the day they said, 'We're tired of Valencia, they're asking for €35 million, so we'll sign Julien'," La Mee told SFR Sport.