Friday, 22nd November, 2013
Jose Mourinho has played down the stories around his former interest in Manchester United's Shinji Kagawa after previously claiming he had wanted to sign him for Real Madrid.
Kagawa left Borussia Dortmund in the summer of 2012, but not before Los Blancos had their approach under Mourinho.
The Portuguese revealed last Friday – in an interview to a Japanese magazine – that he wanted to sign Kagawa from Dortmund but that he would be second choice behind Mesut Ozil.
When asked again about his interest, though, Mourinho said: "I just did it as a courtesy for an interview with [the magazine].
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"We were looking for a player to be behind Mesut Ozil. Of course, a good player, because in Real Madrid you cannot have bad players.
"You always look for good players even if you don't want them to be first choice.
"We spoke with his agent and we made him know that we would be interested. But he decided not to come because he wanted to play every weekend.
"We were honest with him in that Ozil was our first choice. This is the thing that happens a lot when you are honest, when you say the truth and the player can make the best decision for his career."
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