Manchester United moved to sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Sporting in 2003, a deal which now goes down as one of the best of all time.
Legendary manager Sir Alex Ferguson famously claimed he only managed four world class players in his career.
Two of those were academy stars from the ‘Class of 92‘, while two of those were players he signed in the transfer market.
One being future Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo, a 2003 signing from Sporting in the wake of David Beckham’s departure.
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Manchester United signed Cristiano Ronaldo in 2003
Manchester United agreed a deal for Sporting wonderkid Cristiano Ronaldo in summer 2003, paying £12.2 million.
Ronaldo, then 18, was handed the iconic number seven shirt, and made an instant impression on his debut for the club.
Club legend George Best described Ronaldo’s debut as the most exciting one he had ever witnessed.
The truth about Cristiano Ronaldo signing
Former Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon spoke to Rio Ferdinand Presents to give his account of the club’s deal for Ronaldo.
Ronaldo made an impression on United’s players after destroying John O’Shea in a friendly game between United and Sporting in 2003.
Kenyon denies United’s deal for Ronaldo was reactionary to this friendly match, although there was an element of truth, in the speed that it occured.
He explained: “We’d done a deal for Ronaldo prior to that. Against a lot of competition. And I was there to finish it, and the plan was, he would stay at Sporting another 12 months, because he wanted to play football, he wanted to develop.
“Players need to play football to develop. He was 17.”
Ronaldo’s performance in the friendly match changed the timeline of the already agreed deal for the young winger.
Kenyon added: “He absolutely in that first half wiped the floor with us.
“I got a call, Roy Keane, Giggsy, made it quite clear we have got to take this boy home with us. So we stayed and we re-negotiated that deal so he could come to United straight away.”
United’s desire to bring Ronaldo in early was also accelerated by Manchester United missing out on Ronaldinho to Barcelona in the same summer.
Yet the pre-agreed deal for Ronaldo was done, with the objective of playing in the same team as Ronaldinho eventually. It was not a fall-back option, as many have previously assumed.
Kenyon explained: “We would have signed him [Ronaldo], but he would have stayed at Sporting [longer].”
That would have been quite something come 2004, with United adding a young Wayne Rooney along with Ruud van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo and Ronaldinho.
In the end United did not do badly at all, it just took Sir Alex Ferguson a couple of years longer than he would have liked to build his next great team, with Ronaldo a very raw youngster who only began to hit his stride at United in 2006.
Ronaldo returned to Manchester United in 2021
Ronaldo left United in 2009 as a Champions League winner, a three times Premier League champion, a FA Cup winner and two times League Cup winner. By this time he had won the first of his five Ballon d’Ors.
Ronaldo is still United’s record sale, and re-signed for the club in 2021 at the age of 36.
The Portuguese forward finished the season as United’s top goalscorer with 24 goals that season, proving his endurity quality in a very poor Red Devils side.
Now playing in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr, Ronaldo has an incredible 898 goals for club and country, and you would not bet against him playing on until he reaches 1,000
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