Cristiano Ronaldo has claimed he was 'about to go to Arsenal' before Manchester United encountered him in their friendly defeat to Sporting Lisbon 16 years ago.
Ronaldo, 18 at the time, lined up for Sporting against United for the opening of the Jose Alvalade Stadium in a pre-season friendly on August 7 2003. Ronaldo had scored just three career goals but bamboozled United full-back John O'Shea, fresh from an outstanding breakthrough season, in Sporting's 3-1 win.
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was reeling from the club's failure to sign Ronaldinho the previous month and instructed then-chief executive Peter Kenyon to sign up Ronaldo before he left the stadium. On August 12, United announced they had bought Ronaldo for £12.24million.
Several clubs were interested in Ronaldo but Valencia were intent on loaning him back to Sporting for a year, whereas Ferguson wanted to blood Ronaldo into United's first-team.
Juventus had lined up a swap deal involving Marcelo Salas, but the Chilean opted join River Plate in Argentina and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger had identified Ronaldo as a potential addition.
"There had been contacts with so many other teams," Ronaldo told TV1. "Valencia, for example, were one of them. I met with Arsene Wenger and was about to go to Arsenal. I talked to Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter too.
"But after the friendly against Manchester United, who were already interested, they became even more interested and they sped up negotiations and signed me."
In Ronaldo's eponymous 2015 film, his agent Jorge Mendes recalled the conversation he had with Ferguson that convinced him United were the right destination for the teenager.
"Thank God Sir Alex Ferguson came," Mendes says in the film. "And he told me, 'Jorge, leave it with me. He will come now with me and he will play 50 per cent of the games, I promise you.'"
