Rafael Benitez has confirmed publicly for the first time that he has turned down a massive offer to manage Real Madrid.

And sources close to the Liverpool boss insist that the Spanish giants wanted Benitez before they turned their attention to Jose Mourinho.

As the Anfield chief prepared his side for tomorrow's home Premiership game with Middlesbrough, it has become clear he rejected a huge offer from Madrid which could have virtually doubled his Anfield contract.

It is intriguing that the Benitez camp are happy to let it be known who was top of Madrid's wish list the week before their Champions League semi-final first leg against Mourinho's Chelsea.

Madrid-born Benitez and chief executive Rick Parry have made no secret of the fact that the Anfield boss rejected an approach from Real last summer.

Now it has been confirmed that the club Benitez played for, coached the youngsters of and was assistant manager at, came back with another deal in the last few weeks.

Benitez has previously been reluctant to be too specific about what has been going on behind the scenes.

But he has now said: "I said no to Real when they offered me more money than I get here, even though there maybe were greater expectations.

"Madrid may be my town, but I am happy here and pleased with everything. We want to stay because of the new ideas and the new owners are very exciting.

"It is so positive for the future. And I could not ignore the noise and support I received from the supporters last week against Eindhoven, it was tremendous and moving. I repeat, I am very happy here.

"It was not a difficult decision. I have an objective here, I explained that when I spoke to the new owners and they told me they would be supportive.

"It is clear that Madrid was an opportunity but I said 'no' - because I have a lot of confidence in the future here and I believe we can win more trophies and there are a lot of positive things in the future.

"My family are happy, I am happy and we feel the future of the club will be brilliant."

It was suggested by new joint-owner Tom Hicks that Benitez turned his back on Madrid because his wife told him to - but Benitez maintains the decision was his own.

He continued: "I do not like to talk about my family, but they are really happy here at Liverpool and I am prepared to have my daughter with a Scouse accent, even though it is sometimes a problem for me!

"I want to make it clear that I said no to a good offer. That is because we are happy, it is not a question of money.

"This is a project, it is my club, my team, my players and the fans are always behind us. I am really happy here for all these things together."

Benitez also made it clear he wants all talk of new player contracts to stop ahead of the first leg of the European double-header against Chelsea.

Liverpool opened talks for new deals for Steven Gerrard, Jamie Carragher, Xabi Alonso, Jose Reina and Luis Garcia a couple of weeks ago.

Benitez has confirmed all discussions are going well but explained: "I do not want to talk any more about the contract discussions.

"I wanted us to show them I had confidence in them and I would like to see all of them here in the future - the people in charge of the club agree.

"But we are trying to progress, I tried to be positive with them and show the players we want to progress. But if we cannot do it quickly, we will wait and talk after the Champions League.

"It is clear we want to keep these players and to keep them happy here. I have confidence because the conversations were good, but maybe now for this next few weeks it is time to finish talking.

"If we have an agreement okay, if we do not have an agreement we have shown them that we are interested in their futures. But now I want to focus on football and the Champions League.

"The players have contracts already, but we have shown them we want them to stay here and be happy.

"It is a good message for our supporters to show that the new owners and the staff at the club want to keep our key players here.

"I would now want an end to all the talk about the players until after the Champions League.

"We are talking, I don't know how close we are, but it is a positive message. But if we cannot sort things out now I want to think about Chelsea now and then talk again afterwards.

"I do not want to see the players thinking about contracts when they should be concentrating on games."

Craig Bellamy is out of tomorrow's game with a knee injury.