£165,000-A-Week Spaniard Reveals Arsenal Contacted Him

The summer transfer window was awashed with several speculations of players that where linked to the club. While some were close to signing, others fell into the ambit of near misses, and few where make up stories in the corridors of the media. In the end, little is known about what was actually in a certain link or how far the club actually came in signing a certain target. This was the case with Spanish and Real Madrid legend Iker Casillas who was linked mostly on a weekly basis to Arsenal during the summer transfer window.

Little was known about those speculations, but the 33 year old has confirmed that there was indeed interest from Arsenal in his services in the summer.

Amidst all the speculations that trailed his future in Madrid, he confirmed that he was indeed close to leaving the European Champions in the summer with Arsenal mooted as a possible destination.

“I thought about going,” Casillas said “What you want is for Real Madrid to always win. But in the end, at 33-years-of age, you think, why should I (go)?

“I want to fight, to make a go of it, to be reborn from the ashes.

“There was a lot of talk about an offer from Arsenal, but there was nothing concrete. I want to stay at Real Madrid, keep fighting here and finish my career here.”

Despite the fact that nothing came out of the speculations to Arsenal in the summer, he did say he still harbours the dream of playing outside of Spain in his career before he hangs his gloves for good.

“I would like to have some experience abroad before retiring,” the Spanish legend said.

“I think it would help me to appreciate Real Madrid even more. I am convinced that if you go abroad, you will realise what this club represents for the whole world.”

The World Cup and two time Euro Championship winner has endured a difficult last two years in his career after a series of poor form for both the national team and Real Madrid. He only just returned as the first choice goalkeeper with Real Madrid this season after the sales of Diego Lopez to AC Milan in the summer.

While those speculations were on in the summer linking him to Arsenal, there were lots of claims surrounding the credibility of the source of the links. Now that Iker Casillas has come out to confirm that Arsenal was indeed interested in signing him, it settles a sub plot of a story than ran frequently when the window was opened.