Swedish striker Henrik Larsson was a traget of Real Madrid when he was at Barcelona.

According to Sport, the former Real vice-president Juan Mendoza had tried tempt Larsson to move to Madrid immediately after his contract with Barca expired.

In the end, Larsson chose to return to Sweden, though only months later he was snapped up by Manchester United on a short-term deal.

Real have had a history of poaching Barcelona's players such as Luis Figo and Michael Laudrup.