Liverpool had the chance to sign Cristiano Ronaldo for £4m before his move to Manchester United in 2003 but passed up the opportunity as they felt his arrival could upset the dressing room.
According to The Athletic, the then Liverpool manager and assistant manager, Gerard Houllier and Phil Thompson, were both aware of Ronaldo’s emergence at Sporting Lisbon.
‘I was told the fee was £4m but they explained that it could be paid over the course of a four-year contract so essentially it was £1 million per year,’ Thompson said.
‘I asked what kind of salary he would want and they said it was £1 million per year after tax. That was a lot for an 18-year-old kid but they said that was negotiable.’
The Athletic claims that Houllier felt Ronaldo’s wages would have struugled to for in on the club’s wage structure and such a salary would upset other members of the playing squad.
But they weren’t braced for his impending move to rivals United, especially for the cost that Sir Alex Ferguson paid for him.
‘The following week I’m at Melwood when the yellow ticker on Sky Sports News says, ‘Manchester United sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Sporting for £12.2m.’ I couldn’t believe my eyes,’ Thompson said.
‘How had the fee gone up from £4m to £12.2m? It was astonishing that the fee trebled. He was clearly a big talent but no one could have predicted back then how great he was going to be.’
The fee had surged due to agent Tony Henry being taken off the deal and replaced by Paul Stretford and Jorge Mendes.
‘Gerard asked me to phone Tony to find out what had gone on,’ Thompson said. ‘Tony told me that when he’d got off the plane on the Monday he had got a call to say he was off the deal. It was down to Stretford and Mendes instead.’
Ferguson and United were absolutely vindicated in their decision to swoop for Ronaldo.
He scored 118 goals in 292 games at United before joining Real Madrid for £80m in 2009.
Ronaldo won three Premier League titles, the FA Cup and Champions League once and two League Cups during his time on the red half of Manchester.
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