Gerard Houllier believed that signing Cristiano Ronaldo would “cause problems” in the dressing room, thus Liverpool passed up the chance to sign him before he joined Manchester United.
For £12 million, Ronaldo left Sporting Lisbon to join Manchester United in the summer of 2003. As everyone knows, he went on to become one of the finest players in world football.
However, given that former Liverpool manager Gerard Houllier previously said that the club’s pay structure was the reason for their inability to sign the young star in 2003, his trajectory may have been much different.
Back in 2017, Houllier said: “I saw him in the Toulon Under-21 tournament and we went for him.
“But we had a wage scale and we weren’t paying the sort of salary he wanted.
“Then Manchester United played a friendly against Sporting Lisbon and all their boys said to Sir Alex Ferguson: ‘You have to sign him’. But I agreed with not breaking the wage structure. I thought it would cause problems in our dressing room.”
Instead of signing Ronaldo, Liverpool went on to sign Harry Kewell from Leeds United in 2003.
“Maybe we would have won the title with Ronaldo, but we had Harry Kewell, who was outstanding at the time and was very hungry but got a bad injury,” Houllier added.
“After that, he never had the same confidence, the same appetite.”
Sir Alex Ferguson went on to sign Ronaldo, after getting encouraged by senior Man United players. The Portuguese star then helped United to win the Premier League title three times and the Champions League once.
He won the Ballon d’Or while playing for the Red Devils. In 2009, he left the club to join Real Madrid in a £80 million move, which was a world-record fee at that time.
It is easily one of the best signings Man United have ever made!
