Raphael Varane has explained why he chose to leave Real Madrid to move to Manchester United in 2021.

Varane enjoyed unprecedented success during his decade-long stay at Real, winning three LaLiga titles and the Champions League four times.

But he left all that behind to join Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's United four years ago. 

During an appearance on The Bridge - a show co-hosted by current Madrid star Aurelien Tchouameni and former Real midfielder Lassana Diarra - Varane revealed that he had been thinking about moving on for years in order to pursue a new challenge.

'It was actually a long process,' Varane said. 'It's not like you wake up in the morning and say I want to leave. 

'In 2018, I won everything; in fact, we celebrated our fourth Champions League title quickly. It was like a normal thing, the next step is to win the Champions League and think about the next one.

'Then I won the World Cup and I said to myself, I've done it all. There came a point in my life where I restructured myself, reviewed some things regarding my career management, and said to myself, I need to keep feeling emotions, I need something different.

'Madrid is indescribable, it's exceptional, but I've already experienced it. And I said to myself, I want to experience something else.'

Varane spent three years at Old Trafford, playing under Solskjaer, Ralf Rangnick and Erik ten Hag.

The Red Devils failed to challenge for the title or Champions League during this period, but did win the Carabao Cup and FA Cup with Ten Hag at the helm.

Despite not winning the same major honours that he did at Madrid, Varane insists he has 'no regrets' about his decision to move to Manchester.

'For me, England, and Manchester in particular, is where you feel the passion for football, you feel it, you live it every day,' he added.

'Now that some time has passed, I have no regrets because it was an incredible experience.'