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Rafa Benitez turned down a lucrative move to Real Madrid TWICE while he was Liverpool boss.

The claims, made by his agent, suggest that club president Florentino Perez first tried to get the Spaniard on board back in 2008.

And then, after being rebuffed once, Los Blancos attempted to prise Benitez away from Anfield again 12 months later.

Manuel Pellegrini went on take the reins at the Bernabeu but not before the then-Reds manager had turned them down.

"Rafa was for two consecutive years given the chance to become coach of Real Madrid," Manuel Garcia Quilon told the Sun.

"We received a very interesting proposal from the Blancos five years ago and the year before that."

So keen was Perez to get his man he apparently flew to England via private jet and tried to persuade Benitez's wife Montse to follow her husband back to his home city.

But Benitez stood by his convictions and stayed on Merseyside despite a particularly lucrative offer to make the move.

"As Rafa had just renewed his contract with Liverpool and is a man of his word, he turned down the offer from his beloved Real Madrid despite the fact it was the best economic and sporting proposal he’d ever received," he added.