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Phil Costa·16 May 2018
Arsène Wenger reveals how close he was to signing Cristiano Ronaldo

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Phil Costa·16 May 2018
Arsène Wenger has revealed just how close he was to signing Cristiano Ronaldo during his tenure as Arsenal manager.
The five time Ballon d’Or winner moved to Manchester United from Sporting in 2003 but Ronaldo met Wenger long before the Reds swooped.
Ronaldo is just one name in a long list of star players who narrowly missed out on signing for the Frenchman.
“The obvious player that we missed out on that comes to mind is Cristiano Ronaldo,” Wenger told Arsenal’s official website. “He was here with his mother and we were very close.
“Then Man United came in and they had Carlos Queiroz at the time, who was their coach. United played against Sporting Lisbon and Ronaldo was outstanding and they signed him.
“You could imagine at the time what it would have been like to have Thierry Henry and Ronaldo together. That would certainly have changed a little bit the history of my stay here as well.
“There is always something you could have done differently, but the problem of negotiations is to know when you give in and when you don’t give in.
“Once we were at £4.5 million, we were still in negotiations. David met with Jorge Mendes in Paris and he was representing Sporting, so we were very close.
“But Man United went to £12 million, which we could not afford at the time.”
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