The question of what might have been if Cristiano Ronaldo had joined Liverpool instead of Manchester United remains one of football’s most intriguing “what ifs.” In 2003, Liverpool believed they were on the verge of securing the then-teenage sensation from Sporting Lisbon. At the time, several top clubs were pursuing Ronaldo, with Liverpool and Manchester United leading the charge.
Liverpool’s assistant manager at the time, Phil Thompson, recently recounted how close the club came to sealing the deal. According to Thompson, a fee of £4 million and a four-year contract had been agreed upon, and the move seemed all but finalized. Thompson, who was working under manager Gerard Houllier, vividly recalled the meeting in Lisbon with football agent Tony Henry. “It was all very nice and relaxed,” Thompson told The Athletic in 2022. “It’s £4 million, paid over four years—£1 million a year. That seemed very reasonable. Then I asked about the salary, and Tony told me it was £1 million a year, net.”
To their shock, just days later, Ronaldo was unveiled as a Manchester United player for a reported fee of £12.2 million. “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 £12.2 million,’” Thompson recalled. “Gerard and I almost choked on our food. I remember Gerard jumping up and saying, ‘What the hell has gone on there?’”
The popular belief is that Ronaldo’s dazzling performance against United in a pre-season friendly spurred their decision to sign him. However, former Manchester United CEO Peter Kenyon recently set the record straight during an appearance on the “Rio Ferdinand Presents” show. Kenyon dismissed the idea that the transfer was a reaction to that match, revealing that United had already secured a deal for Ronaldo before the friendly took place.
Kenyon also touched on United’s pursuit of Brazilian star Ronaldinho, who eventually signed with Barcelona around the same time. “It [signing Ronaldo] wasn’t by chance,” Kenyon explained. “We’d already done the deal for Ronaldo before the friendly. We brought him in earlier than anticipated.”
Rio Ferdinand, a former United defender, recalled the sequence of events: “We didn’t get Ronaldinho, and I remember the manager [Sir 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 Ronaldo. But I thought that was just reactive to that performance.”
Kenyon clarified: “Not at all. We went 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 for him to stay at Sporting for another 12 months to continue developing, rather than sit on our bench.”
However, Ronaldo’s extraordinary display in that friendly match changed everything. “In that first half, he absolutely wiped the floor with us,” Kenyon said. “Roy Keane and Ryan Giggs made it quite clear we had to take this boy home with us. So we stayed and renegotiated the deal so he could come to United that year.”
Kenyon also revealed that even if Ronaldinho had joined United, they would have still gone ahead with the Ronaldo transfer, though the original plan would have seen Ronaldo remain at Sporting for another season. This revelation underscores the depth of United’s commitment to securing Ronaldo’s signature. Which would eventually prove to be one of the most significant transfers in football history.
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