Jose Mourinho was offered the opportunity to succeed Sir Alex Ferguson as Manchester United manager during a clandestine 2013 meeting in the back of a people carrier.
Sportsmail understands that United's executive vice chairman, Ed Woodward, flew to Madrid in a bid to persuade the Portuguese, then managing Real, to come to Manchester.
The April summit took place in a vehicle, complete with darkened windows, outside the Vicente Calderon, where Mourinho's Madrid were taking on their cross-city rivals Atletico.
However, Woodward was left disappointed when Mourinho informed him that he had told Chelsea he would be returning to Stamford Bridge instead.