Former Italy international Marco Borriello claims he had the chance to sign for Real Madrid or Manchester United earlier in his career.

The striker, who has scored two goals in two Serie A games for his latest club Cagliari, says he had offers from the Premier League and LaLiga giants when he was at AC Milan.

Instead, he opted to stay in Serie A and signed a long-term deal with Roma, although he did later get a taste of English football in a brief loan spell at West Ham.

Borriello explained that while his first year at Roma was successful, the move did not work out for him in the end.

"I could've gone to Real Madrid or Manchester United, but I chose Italy and stayed there with a big club," Borriello, who hit a four-goal haul in the Coppa Italia against SPAL on his Cagliari debut, told Libero.

  Sunday mood... #home Sbirciando negli scatoloni dei ricordi ho trovato alcune maglie di campioni con i quali ho avuto l'onore di giocarci insieme e da avversario...avevo il piacere di mostrarvele....buona domenica 👍🏻 A photo posted by Marco Borriello (@marcoborriello) on Sep 4, 2016 at 3:08am PDT

"I scored 17 goals in my first season, then in came a new sporting director without getting to know me and said ‘this is a problem’, and [the following] mid-season, I found myself somewhere else."

Despite being 34, Borriello insists he is still dreaming of earning a recall to the Italy national team.

"The first secret is that I'm really fighting for it," he said.

"Nutrition has changed my life. I'm better. I remodelled my muscle mass, I weigh seven pounds less than in Rome."