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Real Betis great Joaquin has recalled turning down Chelsea in 2005.
Jose Mourinho was in charge of Chelsea at the time.
Joaquin told AS: “First, because I didn’t want to leave Betis.
“A week before we had played at the Bernabeu against England. I had a great match and Jose was there, he was interested.
“A few days later I recorded an advertisement in Madrid and when I returned on the AVE [high-speed rail], my father tells me that Mourinho is in Seville, waiting for me at the Alfonso XIII hotel.
“And I’m on the train thinking about England, the weather, the language… I made a cocoa and when I arrived, I told to my father: ‘Dad, I’m not going’. Anyway, he’s going to convince me, I thought.
“And I did not go. The next day Mourinho returned and [Manuel Ruiz de] Lopera [former Real Betis chairman] told me that I had to sell myself for the future of the club. I answered no.”