Club Universidad de Chile midfielder Marcelo Diaz has revealed he turned down the chance to join Leicester the year before they ended up as Premier League champions.
The midfielder has been speaking to Misión Deportes, relayed by Bio Bio Chile, about his career to date and his return to Club Universidad at the beginning of January.
The 37-year-old is now very much in the final part of his career and has elected to return to his first club 12 years after he departed them.
He’s had a varied career to date, starting with Universidad in Chile before joining Basel in Switzerland and then Hamburg in Germany in 2015.
A year later he was playing in Spain with Celta Vigo before then moving on a free transfer to Mexican side UNAM Pumas, where he lasted another year before moving to Argentina.
A switch to Paraguay with Libertad followed before he returned to his home country in 2023 and eventually ended up back at Universidad.
He’s now looking back on a varied career, to say the least, and has revealed he could have ended up in England with Leicester at one point but elected to say no to the switch.
“I could have gone to the Premier League, and I didn’t want to,” he said.
“In fact, I have an anecdote there too, that when my representatives arrived and told me about the club that wanted me, I said no, for no reason. It was Leicester City.
“Because they had just come up from the second division and coincidentally, in Leicester’s first year of the Premier League, they were champions.
“I also had options to go to Italy, the opportunity to play for other teams in Germany, but it didn’t happen, nor do I give much importance to what didn’t happen.”
