Barcelona might have signed Cristiano Ronaldo again in 2003 simply earlier than he joined Manchester United, the membership’s former president revealed.
The Pink Devils signed Ronaldo from Sporting Lisbon when he was simply 18 and proved to be fairly the signing for Sir Alex Ferguson.
Over his 5 seasons, he scored 118 objectives profitable three Premier League titles, two League Cups, the FA Cup and Champions League.
He additionally received the primary of his 5 Ballons d’Or whereas at United earlier than his record-breaking transfer to Actual Madrid in 2009.
However issues might have turned out fairly otherwise as Barcelona rejected the possibility to signal him from Sporting for LESS than what the Manchester membership paid.
Their reasoning was that that they had simply signed Ronaldinho that summer time and didn’t really feel like they wanted one other winger.
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Barca in actual fact stole the Brazil World Cup winner from underneath United’s noses as he was simply days away from becoming a member of them from Paris Saint-Germain.
“We have been about to signal Ronaldinho and Rafa Marquez,” Former Barcelona president Joan Laporta instructed Iniestazo (by way of Aim ).
AFP
“Marquez’s individuals proposed Cristiano Ronaldo to us. He was at Sporting on the time.
“One among his brokers stated that that they had a participant who that they had offered to [Manchester] United for 19 million, however they’d promote him to us for 17 million.
“However we had already invested in Ronaldinho on the time. Cristiano performed extra out broad than within the centre. We thought we have been lined, so we rejected him and I don’t remorse it.”
