"I didn't leave Real Madrid for money. I was tired"

Sami Khedira has insisted that he did not leave Real Madrid for money and hit out at the suggestion that he signed for Juventus to get a fatter pay cheque. "It hurt me when people said that", the midfielder told German newspaper Welt am Sonntag.

"I can't be accused of acting disloyally or improperly", Khedira noted. "Real Madrid offered me a mammoth contract that could potentially have seen me earn even more [than at Juve]", he went on.

"At one point I told my agent, Jörg Neubauer, who couldn't be a bigger Real Madrid fan, that I wanted a change. I was tired, because at the end it was extremely exhausting. However, I have to say that overall I had five fantastic years there", the 28-year-old said. Khedira also claimed that Real Madrid are an "even bigger club than it seems", with thousands of supporters "wherever you go". "When I would search for holiday destinations, I would always think of somewhere very far away. But it didn't matter what remote corner of the world I was in, people would always recognise me", he revealed.

Khedira claimed that the demands at the Bernabeu are "unique": "That obligation to win everything at all costs is something I had never experienced before".