Atalanta captain Alejandro Gomez claims Diego Simeone wanted to bring him to Atletico Madrid after their time together at Catania.
The Argentine forward helped Cholo to 13th in Serie A in 2010-11, but the former Lazio and Inter midfielder moved back to Argentina to coach Racing Club the following season.
Simeone returned to Europe when his former club Atletico Madrid came asking in 2011-12 and Papu, who had stayed at Catania, was getting restless and wanted to play in the Champions League.
Atalanta captain Alejandro Gomez claims Diego Simeone wanted to bring him to Atletico Madrid after their time together at Catania.
The Argentine forward helped Cholo to 13th in Serie A in 2010-11, but the former Lazio and Inter midfielder moved back to Argentina to coach Racing Club the following season.
Simeone returned to Europe when his former club Atletico Madrid came asking in 2011-12 and Papu, who had stayed at Catania, was getting restless and wanted to play in the Champions League.
In August 2013, Gomez eventually moved to Metalist Kharkiv in Ukraine, but revealed to Smoke Free journalist Martin Reich that Simeone had come back for him.
“During that summer I had lunch in Argentina with Simeone,” Gomez said. “And he told me that on the return to pre-season he would ask for me as reinforcement to his team.
“At that time, Atletico were not doing very well and from a financial point of view he came to offer €6m.
“Catania didn’t want to sell me for less than €10m and in the end nothing happened. They didn’t sell me, and I wanted to die.”
Gomez returned to Italy in September 2014, when Atalanta came knocking and has built a great career with the Orobici.