Bothroyd on Inter’s offer & the ‘toughest defender’ he played against

Former

international,

, admitted to receiving an offer from

in January 2004 back when he was a

player.

The current

’s striker, who revealed that Perugia President, Luciano Gaucci, declined Inter’s offer with a

"ridiculous"

 price tag, says he was mad with Gaucci’s act back then.

He told

The Italian Football Podcast

:

“No-one really knows this but it was the winter transfer window [in 2004], Inter had many injuries. Adriano was at Parma at the time and they inquired about me.”

“Gaucci said some ridiculous number to them and that got shut down straight away [laughs]. I was really pissed off about it at the time, cause it was Inter.”

“But he [Gaucci] told me about it as well in a kind of way that was like ‘haha we just rejected a bid’, and I remember thinking ‘you what? You just rejected a bid from Inter’ [laughs]. But Gaucci wanted to keep me at Perugia.”

Later revealing the toughest defenders he ever encountered on the pitch, he said:

“Toughest defender I played against? Maldini and Ivan Cordoba. He was about 5 foot 10 but he had a spring that was amazing. And he was quick and super aggressive.”

“When the ball was down the other end he was pinching my back and just aggravating me, and he was really nasty to play against.”

“I remember it well, I hated playing against him. We played against them a couple of times that season and he was really nasty to play against. And obviously Maldini, he is one of the best ever.”  

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