President Florentino Perez has claimed that Erling Braut Haaland faced spending the season on the Real Madrid substitutes' bench had he moved to the Santiago Bernabeu.

Throughout the most recent campaign, speculation persisted that the La Liga giants were in the running to sign the in-demand forward from Borussia Dortmund.

Real ultimately placed more focused on trying to secure the services of Kylian Mbappe, only for the World Cup winner to remain at Parc des Princes.

Nevertheless, Perez has insisted that there was little value in Haaland - who has since joined Manchester City - penning a deal at Los Blancos while Karim Benzema is at the club.

Speaking to El Chiringuito, Perez said: "Mbappe deal didn't create any problem with Haaland deal, absolutely. We have Benzema, so it was impossible to have him with Karim.

"We can't sign Haaland to stay on the bench. Haaland is an amazing, fantastic player."

Despite reaching the age of 34, Benzema arguably enjoyed the best year of his career during 2021-22, helping Real win the La Liga title and Champions League.

Furthermore, the Frenchman contributed a remarkable 42 goals and 14 assists from fixtures in those competitions, solidifying his status as a club legend.

Meanwhile, Haaland has instead signed for Man City, partly due to his father Alf-Inge Haaland representing the team during his playing days.

In the same interview, Perez also opened up on the saga which led to Mbappe remaining at Parc des Princes, claiming that the striker had a change of heart due to "political and economical pressure".

Perez said: "We didn't sign any pre-contract or agreement with Kylian Mbappe because it's not regular. Kylian Mbappe did not betray me. Mbappe told us his dream was to play for Real Madrid, many and many times. But then all changed in 15 days because of political and economical pressure. His dream had to change.

"I think Kylian Mbappe's mum wanted him to join Real Madrid, she knows it has always been Kylian's dream. I'm sure she wanted Mbappe to join us, but things change and we have to respect. I still respect Kylian, absolutely."

Mbappe has opted to pen a new three-year contract with PSG, the deal being due to end two years before Benzema's current contract expires at Real.

However, like they did with fellow veteran Luka Modric, Real are expected to negotiate fresh terms with Benzema before the end of next season.