Simeone spurned 35m euro offer to quit Atletico

Diego Simeone said he considered quitting Atletico Madrid last summer following defeat to city rivals Real Madrid in the 2016 Champions League final, and turned down a 35 million euro offer from another club to leave. The former midfielder has transformed Atletico’s fortunes in his five years in charge.

“I got to the press room and had to go through the area where Real Madrid were celebrating and I felt a lot of pain, and I started to think that this was going to be a difficult year and it would be hard to motivate my players again,” he said. “I said what I felt, that I needed to think about it. Is that so bad? You have to remember if I wanted to go to another team I would have had 35 million reasons. But I didn’t leave because I didn’t want to.” Spanish media speculated that the clubwas Paris Saint Germain.