Tite admits turning down approaches from Real Madrid & PSG | OneFootball

Brazil head coach Tite has revealed that he has previously turned down offers to move into European club football from Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.

Tite has been in charge of Brazil since 2016, having almost exclusively worked at Brazilian clubs during his 30-year coaching career other than two brief spells in Abu Dhabi.

The approaches from PSG came in 2018, shortly before the World Cup when the club was seeking a replacement for Unai Emery. Real also came calling for Tite that same summer when Zinedine Zidane stepped down, before settling on Julen Lopetegui.

Tite has now told The Guardian that he refused to even speak with either club because his primary motivation is to win the World Cup with Brazil.

"I received offers from Real Madrid, PSG and Sporting. But I didn’t want that. I want to win the World Cup. After the World Cup, I will decide my future,” he explained.

“At the [2018] World Cup, [Madrid] said they wanted to talk and I said no, I won’t talk, don’t come close. I want to be at peace with myself and my work. I am giving my best. When you do something in parallel, that’s not doing it to the fullest. I can’t do it,” the coach continued.

“There was another club that wanted to talk to me and I said no: PSG. They wanted to talk to me and I said I won’t; I don’t want to and I won’t. I don’t want to open up that possibility of something else. I want to be focused on my work. After is another story.”

Tite also played down suggestions that 2022 could be Neymar’s last World Cup at the age of 30 after the PSG star gave an interview last year saying as much. But his national team coach insisted that the comments need to be interpreted with context because the interview had been recorded several months earlier around the time of a major elimination with PSG or Brazil.

“We have to pay attention to when this happened. If I had spoken right after a cup elimination, I would have been extremely upset too,” Tite said.

“This has to be contextualised. We talk to all the players, including Neymar, about the physical, technical, tactical and mental preparation for decisive games.”