MANCHESTER United legend Paul Scholes has revealed his career could have been much different to how it turned out to be.
The 45-year-old has told of how he could have signed for Inter Milan who were the only club ever to try to steal him, but decided to remain at Old Trafford – where he ended his lavish football career.
Scholes won 11 Premier League titles with the Red Devils and played in over 700 games for the club.
He enjoyed a career which saw him named one of the best midfield players of all time and he showed his dedication to United, by remaining with them until the end.
But the icon told BBC Radio 5 Live how there was a time that he was made aware of talk regarding interest in him, in what was a very rare phone call.
Scholes said: ”I was never ever made aware of any teams coming in for me.
”I did have one phone call off an agent, Bryan Robson’s old agent, he rang me while we were away at Euro 2000 to ask me if I would be interested in going to Inter Milan but that’s the only phone call I ever had.
”I never heard anything after that and the manager never said anything to me.
”I was playing at my boyhood club, I was a Manchester lad, we were winning trophies all the time.
”If the manager said to me he didn’t want me I would definitely have gone if there was a big club abroad who wanted me but there was never any need to think about Barcelona, Real Madrid or AC Milan because I was at the biggest club in the world anyway.
”We didn’t win as many Champions Leagues as we should have but we were every inch as good as those teams, if not better.”
Scholes has admitted he regrets ending his international career as early as he did, telling BBC 5 Live: ”I had a young family at the time and going away for England ten days at a time, sometimes six weeks in the summer, it just wasn’t ideal and I wasn’t enjoying it.”
He went on to reveal: ”I do regret leaving England so soon. I went back to United and my football changed.
”I had been a player who was expected to score goals all the time for England, which I was judged on.”
Overall, the United legend scored 155 goals in 718 games.
He also lifted the Champions League trophy with United in 1999 and 2008, as well as winning three FA Cups and two League cups.
