Mauricio Pochettino ‘turned down management offers as he waited for Real Madrid to call’ ahead of PSG move

MAURICIO POCHETTINO previously turned down management offers to wait for the Real Madrid job.

That's before he eventually ended up joining Paris Saint-Germain two years ago.

The former Tottenham boss, 51, who has now joined Chelsea, was out of football for more than a year after being sacked by Daniel Levy in November 2019 following a lengthy spell with the North London club.

The Argentine coach was linked with replacing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer at Manchester United several times - and then again before Erik ten Hag was appointed.

Poch is now Blues head coach, replacing caretaker boss Frank Lampard.

But it was reported last year by that he was waiting to take over from Zinedine Zidane at Los Blancos in 2021.

It soon became clear the role at the Spanish giants was not on the horizon so he joined PSG - with Zidane then leaving the Bernabeu while he was in charge of the Parisians.

Real Madrid subsequently brought Carlo Ancelotti back to the club and he has had much success, winning the LaLiga title and Champions League last season.

Pochettino won the Coupe de France and Trophee des Champions in his first season with PSG and then the Ligue 1 title in his second.

However, it was not enough for him to keep his job and he was relieved of his duties last summer.

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The Champions League remains the trophy PSG are desperate to get their hands on and Poch signed the likes of Lionel Messi, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Sergio Ramos and Achraf Hakimi to help them.

But when the French side were knocked out of the Champions League by eventual winners Real Madrid, it appeared Poch was on borrowed time.

They had a 2-0 aggregate lead with just 30 minutes to play but crashed out of the competition in spectacular fashion.

Karim Benzema's quickfire hat-trick left the writing on the wall for Pochettino.

Since leaving the Parc des Princes, former Southampton boss Pochettino has been linked with a number of jobs as he eyed a return to management.

Nice were interested in him, as were Chelsea when they sacked Thomas Tuchel in September.

But Poch and the Blues finally felt the time was right after Potter's departure - which came towards the end of a nightmare campaign.