Rafa Benitez certainly has a long list of regrets from his time as manager at Liverpool, but among the memorable disappointments he says he had was the inability to sign a 17-year-old Sergio Aguero before he made is first big move into European football.
Ahead of his Newcastle United team’s match with Manchester City on Tuesday, the former Liverpool boss admitted that Aguero’s former club Independiete offered the Argentine striker to the Reds in 2006, but ultimately passed on the opportunity and allowed Atletico Madrid to land him for €23 million.
“I was Liverpool manager, they offered him to us as a young player for big, big money,” Benitez said [per Goal].
“He signed for Atletico Madrid.
“He was a player that we knew. We were following him. We knew he was a very good player then.”
Aguero went on to win multiple awards and titles with Atletico during his time in Spain, scoring over 100 goals for the club in a five-year span before being sold to Manchester City in 2011. Since joining the Citizens, Aguero has scored over 130 goals and has won two Premier League titles, along with the 2014-15 Golden Boot.
Benitez, on the other hand, has bounced around Europe since his 2010 dismissal from Liverpool, enjoying short-lived stints with Inter Milan, Chelsea, Napoli, Real Madrid and now Newcastle United.
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