The reason Barcelona did not sign Benzema LaLiga Santander They had the chance under Begiristain

Barcelona needed a forward in 2008 when Pep Guardiola arrived at the helm of the Camp Nou and did not want to count on Samuel Eto'o.

Karim Benzema was their main target at the time, as the Frenchman had performed incredibly at Olympique Lyonnais for the previous couple of seasons.

Txiki Begisristain, then technical secretary at Barcelona, was in charge of the operation and had visited the player's house in Lyon in order to convince him to sign for the club, with those at the Camp Nou assuming the striker would join.

However, Begisristain was not happy with anything he saw. He did not like the friendships that the no.9 had nor the way he tried to relate to him in conversation, even commenting that Benzema did not look at him during their chat.

For one reason or another, it was decided that the club would not sign the forward as there was a risk he would become problematic and his adaptation would not be easy.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic arrived in the summer of 2009 in exchange for Samuel Eto'o and David Villa arrived a year later to replace the Swede.

It was then that Real Madrid gamble on the Frenchman and he has been a regular starter ever since.