Manchester United were interested in Cristiano Ronaldo before Ronaldinho rejected him for Barcelona, according to Peter Kenyon.
Man United wanted to sign Ronaldinho in Kenyon’s final year at Old Trafford, but the move failed to materialise, with the Brazilian star leaving Paris Saint-Germain for LaLiga.
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Barca President Joan Laporta wanted to bring Man United David Beckham for the club, but the England star signed for Real Madrid instead. The Spanish giants then entered the race for Ronaldinho.
In the end, Barça outbid Manchester United with a €30 million bid.
That summer, the Red Devils then acquired Ronaldo as the most important signing, leaving some fans to believe that the then Sporting Lisbon star only arrived because Ronaldinho didn’t.
But former Manchester United chief executive Kenyon insists that wasn’t the case, saying they were after him anyway, even before Ronaldinho said no and a deal was struck for him before United faced Sporting in a pre-season friendly.
“No, it was not by chance,” he said, addressing those assumptions about Man United legend Rio Ferdinand.Rio Ferdinand presents‘ podcast.
“We had closed the deal with Ronaldo. We brought him in earlier than we expected.”
When asked if Manchester United knew about Sporting’s young talent and were interested in Ronaldinho, he said: “Yes, for sure.”
“I always thought we didn’t have Ronaldinho,” Ferdinand interjected, clarifying what he and many Man United fans believed happened. “And I remember [Sir Alex Ferguson] devastated on the training ground.
“’He’s not coming, he’s going to Barca, I think they’ve finished us off’. So I didn’t hear any more murmurs about anyone else.
“So we go to play Sporting in the stadium, and we leave the stadium knowing we signed him. But I thought that was just a reaction to that performance.”
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“Absolutely not,” Kenyon said. “So we come from pre-season in America, we go to Sporting, you have to remember that, okay, it was pre-season…”
Ferdinand then interrupted, saying, “Yes, he was unreal.”
“We had done a deal with Ronaldo before that, against a lot of competition,” Kenyon said. “And I was there to finalise it. The plan was for him to stay at Sporting for another 12 months.
“He wanted to play football and develop. Players need to play football to develop, not sit on the bench for the first team.
“And he was very clear about – he was 17, right. He still wanted to play every game, didn’t he? Like everyone does.
“But he absolutely, in the first half, wiped the floor with us and I got a call. It was Roy Keane and Giggsy who made it very clear that we have to take this boy home with us.
“So we stayed and actually renegotiated that deal so he could come to United that year. It wasn’t a reaction to Ronaldinho.”
Asked whether they would still sign Ronaldo if Ronaldinho’s transfer went through, Kenyon said yes, but that the former would have stayed at Sporting for another year.
Ronaldo made 346 appearances for Manchester United across two spells.
He scored 145 goals and provided 54 assists, as well as winning the Champions League, three Premier Leagues, two League Cups and an FA Cup.
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