AFC Bournemouth’s Dean Huijsen received interest from Real Madrid and Barcelona earlier in his career.
In the summer window, the 19-year-old joined the Premier League side from Juventus on a permanent transfer.
The Bournemouth player is currently with the Spain U21 squad which gave AS a chance to have a chat with him.
Juve took the defender from Málaga for their academy in 2021. Prior to that, Real Madrid and Barca showed interest. The youngster snubbed the two Spanish giants in favour of the Serie A side.
AS asked him about his decision to turn down Los Blancos and the Catalan club.
“I think I made the most difficult decision. But Italy has a reputation for having good defenders and I learned a lot there,” he said.
The newspaper states the Champions League winners invited his father to Valdebebas to convince the defender to join them. Jordi Cruyff, who was then at Barca, also tried to tempt him.
“[His father told] that it [Real Madrid] was a very good option, but it was my decision. It’s a very important name [Cruyff], but I’m very cold about these things. I thought about where I was going to be better,” Huijsen explained.
The youngster didn’t get an opportunity at Juventus and was sent out on loan to AS Roma in the second half of last season. His performances for them had attracted interest from several clubs and Bournemouth succeeded in securing his services.
Huijsen has made five Premier League appearances and it includes three starts. Andoni Iraola has assured he’ll get more opportunities with the Cherries.
“[Iraola told me] that my time is going to come. I’m waiting for that, I continue working well, training well… and when I play, I do well. They are football things,” he added.
