Ziege: How Magpies tried to sign me

FORMER Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur defender Christian Ziege has revealed Newcastle United tried to sign him before he ever moved to England.

A year after winning Euro 1996 with Germany, Ziege, pictured right in action for Middlesbrough, opted to leave Bayern Munich for a new challenge – and the majority of Europe’s top clubs were tracking him.

Newcastle, Barcelona, Juventus, Atletico Madrid and Manchester United were among the clubs who made Ziege an offer, but it was AC Milan who would eventually sign the German during the summer of 1997 as he believed Italy had the best players in the world plying their trade there at the time.

Ziege would then go on to play for three clubs in England – first Middlesbrough, before spells at Liverpool and Spurs – but injuries ensured he never quite reproduced his Bayern form in England.

“I was linked with quite a lot of teams [in 1997], but I wanted to go to Italy,” Ziege told this month’s edition of FourFourTwo.

“Almost all of the best footballers were there at the time because England had the problem with not playing in Europe for five seasons.

“I had offers from Barcelona, Juventus, Milan, Atletico Madrid and Newcastle – and I was talking to Alex Ferguson at Manchester United at one stage, but my decision was made. I told him it would have been better if he’d called me earlier, as United were massive at the time, but I was happy to join Milan.”