I was shock Madrid loanee from West Ham but I didn't fall asleep on the bench, I was bored

Arguably the biggest club in the world that win Champions League titles like it is a walk in the park, some of the biggest players have graced the Bernabeu.

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Zinedine Zidane, Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Julien Faubert, Luis Figo… wait, who?

Yes, once upon a time, the Frenchman made the bizarre move from West Ham on loan to Real Madrid on Deadline Day in the winter transfer window of 2009.

There was even an option to buy at the end of the loan spell, something that after two appearances and a snooze on the bench was unsurprisingly never taken up on.

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Faubert must have hardly believed his luck when Real Madrid rang West Ham up and asked to take him on loan for the rest of the season.

And he must have thought he was in a fever dream when he was handed the No. 10 shirt - the first player to wear it since Zidane.

It is no surprise that Faubert thought it was a prank call when he first heard of their interest.

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"I received a call from this French guy at Real Madrid, and he said to me, 'Hi, I work for Real Madrid, and we have to talk to you"', he told The Athletic.

"I told him I have an important game to prepare for and I don't have time for this bulls****.

"I switched off my phone, we played the game, and after the match, I switched on my phone and saw around 30 text messages and 50 voicemails.

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"That's when I knew it was serious."

But Faubert's short time at Real Madrid was anything but ordinary, despite playing just 54 minutes of football across two appearances.

Juande Ramos, who was manager at the time, was never truly impressed by the right-back - while antics off the pitch harmed his chances more than anything.

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The Spanish press published photos of Faubert appearing to take a nap while sitting on the bench, something he has strongly denied.

Speaking to FourFourTwo, he said: "I spoke with the boss at Madrid and he said that when you play for this team you have to be careful about everything, when you talk on the pitch or the way you act.

"They said you've got 10-15 cameras always only on the bench. I just closed my eyes because I was bored for half a second and they took a picture and said I was sleeping!

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"But I don't sleep on the bench - I prefer a bed…"

Faubert's time at Real Madrid did not get much better when he missed a day of training by accident when he believed he had a day off.

After he was dropped for the subsequent match, Ramos said: "The boy got confused, nothing more. He knows there is an internal disciplinary system and he is prepared to abide by it so there is no problem."

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He would not appear for Real Madrid again after the incident.

And that was about as good as it got for Faubert at the Bernabeu, as he returned to West Ham that summer where his teammates no doubt bombarded him with questions over his time at the European juggernaut.

After spells in Turkey, Scotland and Indonesia, Faubert called it a day in 2020 following a frankly wild career.