BLACKBURN manager Mark Hughes is likely to demand showdown talks with Benni McCarthy after the striker admitted he fancies joining a club in the Champions League.

Hughes launched a vigorous defence of his leading scorer earlier this week, claiming several quotes attributed to McCarthy in The Sun, which suggested he was keen on joining Chelsea, were cherry picked' from a Portuguese paper and then taken out of context.

However, it would now appear that there was some truth in those comments after all, judging by an interview McCarthy gave at the WKD Nuts Football Awards.

When questioned about his future, the South African hitman, who joined Rovers from Porto for a bargain £2.5 million last summer, said: "It's not like I owe them my life or they owe me for bringing me into the Premier League, for which I am totally grateful, and they will always have a place in my heart.

"With the goals I've scored and the work I've put in, in that way I've paid back my dues.

"If something extraordinary does come and it's a big team, a Champions League team, then I would love to ask for the opportunity to try my fortunes at a higher level, at the biggest stage.

"I'm still a Blackburn player but I'd love to play in the Champions League again."

McCarthy's comments are sure to infuriate Hughes and the Rovers boss is likely to want an explanation from the striker as to why he has chosen to go public with his feelings.

However, Hughes is adamant his star striker is going nowhere, and he has already made it clear that he under no pressure to sell McCarthy, and there are no clauses in the player's contract which could force the club into selling if a certain level of offer was made.

Nevertheless, the nature and timing of McCarthy's comments is sure to concern the Rovers boss, and he may now have to spend the summer fighting off interest in his top scorer after the player himself has made it known he would be open to offers.

"When you come from a Champions League team you miss playing against the likes Barcelona, AC Milan and the big-shots of world football," said McCarthy.

"Blackburn are probably not a team that will help me with that but it's a great team, a family team and I'm loving every moment of it.

"Sometimes I do have wishes that I will one day hopefully have the chance to play Champions League football again, and hopefully that will come true.

"I'm not saying I want to leave Blackburn but if the chance did come then I'd love to have a go.

"I've felt very flattered because you play for a small team compared to the big four, to come into the hardest league and do well and get linked with one of the big four, it's amazing."

McCarthy also said he would be supporting Chelsea in Saturday's FA Cup final because of his friendship with Jose Mourinho, his former manager at Porto.

And in a statement that will further infuriate Hughes, and indeed Blackburn supporters, he said he hoped Mourinho would try and sign him this summer.

"I've grown up supporting Manchester United and I still love them but on the other hand I've got a lot of friends at Chelsea and one special friend who is Mourinho," he said.

"We go a long way back and he's been amazing to me. I've only got good things and great memories about him. Obviously I want Chelsea to win because of Mourinho, (Ricardo) Carvalho, (Paulo) Ferreira and all my mates like (Didier) Drogba, (Michael) Essien and (Claude) Makelele.

"They could have won everything and in a week it was like Arsenal - they lost the league and the Champions League. They have the FA Cup left.

"Hopefully if they win that they can probably build a stronger team. Next season he'll want to win the league and Champions League.

"He'll want to come for bigger and better players and hopefully I'll fall in the category that he'll look for."