Ex-Liverpool star Daniel Agger revealed that he said no to signing for Manchester City during his time at Anfield, even though the Anfield outfit were ready to let him go.
The Danish defender spent eight years at Liverpool after moving from his childhood club Brondby in 2006. Fans quickly took a liking to Agger as he became one of the top centre-backs in the league, playing well with Jamie Carragher and Martin Skrtel.
Because of his amazing performances and Liverpool’s poor show in 2012, there were whispers about him leaving. Big teams like Barcelona and Manchester City were interested in having him.
But Agger didn’t want to leave Liverpool for Manchester, even if it meant winning more trophies. “It was a strange one,” he told Liverpool legend John Aldridge on the ‘Aldo Meets’ Podcast.
About that uncertain time in his career 12 years ago, he said: “I remember I got presented for all these things and the club asked me what I was going to do and I said, ‘If you want me here, I will stay’. But I said, ‘If you don’t want me, if you don’t see me as part of your future I think it’s time that I go because I want to play football.”
Agger, the former Liverpool player, revealed that the club wanted to sell him to Barcelona and Man City. He said: “I don’t know the story from their side, I think they agreed a price (with Barcelona) and they accepted it and came to me and said, ‘this is it’. I said, ‘okay, fair enough’.
“But then from the side, another offer came in which was a lot higher, which they accepted and I didn’t want to go to that club.”
Despite Man City’s higher offer, Agger was not interested in moving to a Premier League rival. He stated: “I said, ‘if you want to sell me I go down there (to Barcelona) otherwise I don’t go’.”
He also felt that Liverpool wanted him to move to Man City because of the high transfer fee. He added: “And another offer came in from the same club (Man City), higher, and my feeling was that the club wanted me to go because it was a lot of money back then.”
However, he refused to move to Man City. He declared: “I said, ‘there’s no chance I’m going to that club, so better just stop now'”.
‘Aldo Meets’ Podcast, host and John Aldridge asked Agger if the other club in question was Manchester City, to which he replied: “Yeah.”
Agger left Liverpool in 2014 for Brondby, where he played for two seasons before retiring in 2016.
