Former Manchester City star Elano admits Liverpool were close to signing Rodrygo Goes before his move to Real Madrid.

Elano was in charge of Santos at the time of Rodrygo's move a year ago.

"There was a period when there was a very strong negotiation from Liverpool for him to leave when he was still very young," he told ESPN.

“The values were very low, but he wanted to go. Real's offer later was around 30 million euros (around £25m) more.

“I had a conversation with people at Santos and I said that the boy was worth the bet and we should raise him because I would like to work with him.

“Thank God everything worked out thanks to Rodrygo."

Real agreed a €45million euro deal with Santos in June 2018 that saw the player move to Spain 12 months later.