Lyon president claims Real did not want to bring back Diaz

Kolkata, August 30: Though Real Madrid have still not been able to fill in the big void created by Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure to Juventus, they managed to bring back former academy player Mariano Diaz from French Ligue 1 club Lyon.

Sevilla were the frontrunners to sign Diaz after having offered Lyon €40m for the striker. Then Real Madrid exercised their right to buy back Mariano and struck a deal around €22mn.

Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas confirmed that that Sevilla’s offer was the reason which prompted Real to make the approach after its chief Florentino Perez showed initial reluctance

"After Mariano told me that he wanted to return to Real Madrid, I called Florentino and he told me no, that they weren't interested in that type of striker. Mariano kept telling me that he wanted to go to Real Madrid."

"When the offer from Sevilla arrived, we thought it would be bad for Lyon to keep a player in the squad who wanted to leave," added Aulas.