Geoffrey Kondogbia claims that he turned down the opportunity

Inter Milan’s major signing in the summer, Geoffrey Kondogbia, claims that he turned down the opportunity to move to the Premier league or to AC Milan in order to join Roberto Mancini’s team.

Kondogbia has signed for a mammoth transfer fee and it is a surprise that Inter have managed to sign him amidst interest from a number of other parties. One of the major factors appears to have been former Manchester United defender Patrice Evra, who had reportedly advisedKondogbia to join Inter Milan. Further, there was interest from rivals AC Milan – according to the player himself – but that was turned down even with a larger contract offer.

Both Milan clubs have struggled immensely in the last couple of years, but Inter’s situation is seen as being slightly better than that of AC Milan. Roberto Mancini failed to get the club even into the top six of the table despite massive investment in the January transfer window. He will hope to avoid the mistake of the same nature in the upcoming season. Failure to reach any form of European football would be catastrophic for the prestige of the club. Inter, however, will see the lack of Europa league football as a blessing in disguise.

“Yes, the truth is that I spoke to Milan, but never in my life have I said yes to Milan CEO Adriano Galliani.Milan offered me more, but Mancini made the difference, he told me what I wanted to hear. The two clubs know what happened, and they know what they offered me. Milan know that their offer was better financially, but I didn’t make my choice based on that. I also spoke to Evra, though not specifically regarding Inter. His opinion was very important to me, he made me realise that once you’ve tried Serie A nothing will be more impressive,” saidKondogbia.