Former Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon has cleared up confusion over Cristiano Ronaldo’s first move to the club amid interest from Liverpool
Image: PA)
It’s one of the biggest transfer what ifs in football history – what if Cristiano Ronaldo had joined Liverpool instead of Manchester United?
The Anfield giants felt they were extremely close to signing the then-teenage winger from Sporting Lisbon in 2003. Ronaldo was being tracked by multiple clubs at the time, with United and Liverpool both near the front of the queue.
At one stage, the latter thought it was a done deal in their favour. According to Liverpool’s assistant manager at the time, Phil Thompson, a fee of just £4million and four-year contract had been agreed.
Thompson, who was working under Gerard Houllier, recalled how he thought it was a done deal that Ronaldo would be wearing red on Merseyside rather than in Manchester. Recalling a meeting with football agent Tony Henry is Lisbon, where the finer details were being thrashed out, Thompson told The Athletic in 2022: “I can still remember Tony’s exact words.
“It was all very nice and relaxed. It’s £4million and it can be paid over the four years of his contract, so £1million a year. That seemed very reasonable. Then I asked about the salary and Tony told me it was £1million a year, net.”
Therefore, Thompson and Houllier were stunned when it was announced that Ronaldo had signed for United instead. Thompson added: “On the Tuesday morning, we were having lunch at the training ground and it came up on the yellow strap on Sky Sports, ‘Manchester United have signed Cristiano Ronaldo for £12.2million’.
“Gerard and myself almost choked on our food. I can remember Gerard jumping up and saying, ‘What the hell has gone on there?’”
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Rio Ferdinand Presents/YouTube)
It’s believed in some quarters that United only swooped for Ronaldo after a sparkling performance against them in a pre-season friendly. However, then-CEO Peter Kenyon quashed that theory during an appearance on the Rio Ferdinand Presents show.
Kenyon also addressed United’s failed pursuit of Brazilian superstar Ronaldinho, who went to Barcelona instead, around the same time. He told Ferdinand: “It [signing Ronaldo] wasn’t by chance. We’d already done the deal for Ronaldo [before the friendly]. We brought him in earlier than anticipated.”
Former United defender Ferdinand then recalled: “We didn’t get Ronaldinho and then I remember the manager [Alex Ferguson] being devastated on the training ground. Then I didn’t hear any murmurings about anyone else.
“We go and play Sporting and we leave the stadium knowing we’ve signed him [Ronaldo]. But I thought that was just reactive to that performance.”
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Kenyon confirmed: “Not at all. We go to Sporting to play in their new stadium, to open it. We’d done a deal for Ronaldo prior to that, despite a lot of competition.
“The plan was that he would stay at Sporting for another 12 months because he wanted to play football and develop, not sit on a first-team bench [at United].
“But in that first half, he absolutely wiped the floor with us. Roy Keane and Giggsy may it quite clear we had to take this boy home with us. So we stayed and actually renegotiated that deal so he could come to United that year.”
Kenyon confirmed that even if Ronaldinho had been signed, they would have still gone ahead with the Ronaldo transfer, albeit with the original plan of him remaining with Sporting for another year.
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