Soccer: Cristiano Ronaldo Nearly Signed With Spanish Club Before Joining Manchester United

A teenage Cristiano Ronaldo nearly signed with Malaga before Manchester United nabbed the kid’s talents years ago, as revealed at least from the accounts of the Spanish club.

Carlos Rincon, who was then Malaga’s recruitment chief, rued money as the culprit that pulled the plug on the initial talks as the young Ronaldo was said to be worth €2 million more than what the club had in possession.

As he spoke with El Desmarque, Rincon said, “At that time we made an offer of €1.5m and the player was worth about €3.5m. We could not move on because we couldn’t reach that amount. In the end, good players are not expensive, but we couldn’t get there.”

It was during the European Under-17 Championships in 2002 held in Denmark that Rincon and his team first witnessed Ronaldo’s game on the pitch as the Portuguese footballer played for the Sporting Youth Academy. And even in just a short span of watching him play, Rincon already saw the gem that would eventually win five Ballon d’Or awards.

“He already has his primary qualities at that age, they already have them, then they develop or improve tactically,” Rincon said. “Cristiano was what he is now when he was young. A player with a very important physical power, with a spectacular shot, very intuitive in his way of understanding the game with a technical quality with the ball at the level of dribbling and spectacular driving.”

After keeping a close eye on three of the best players in the said youth tournament, Rincon then bared that he made his official offer to Ronaldo through his agent Jorge Mendes.

“As soon as the championship ended I had the phone number of the three best players. I was then following them on television, I was not going [to the games],” he continued. “The following week we established contact with players and families to meet their agents and see if we could make an offer.

“Within that situation was Ronaldo,” he added. “He had not yet debuted in the first team of Sporting in Lisbon, and we made an offer through Jorge Mendes.”

The negotiation was going well until money took over the scene, leaving the door open for Manchester United, through Alex Ferguson, to take over in granting the terms and capture the rights for the highly-touted Ronaldo.

“We acted very fast. A month or two passed and he immediately debuted with the first team and Manchester United arrived quickly. Jorge has many elite-level relationships, at that time we could no longer compete,” Rincon went on. “[Alex] Ferguson, his sporting father, became infatuated after a friendly and deposited €18m months after Malaga became interested. It was the best option at that time. Cristiano is one of the best in history."