BARCELONA (SPAIN) – For more than ten years, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have been competing for the scepter of the "strongest footballer in the world" to the sound of Golden Balls and trophies.
But few know that in 2009, exactly eleven years ago, they could have played together.
Cristiano Ronaldo had broken up with Manchester United and had reached an agreement with manager Sir Alex Ferguson to leave the team at the end of the season.
United had only imposed one condition, it wanted to earn as much as possible from this sale.
Ronaldo wanted to go to play at Real Madrid but the negotiation was not made complex only by the huge numbers of the operation but also by the internal split in the management of the blancos.
Real Madrid was in a transition phase, the transition from Calderon to Perez was being perfected.
During this power vacuum, the reins of the company had been taken by Boluda but many managers felt it was wrong to invest such a large amount for a single foreign player, they would have liked to invest this money in more players of Spanish nationality.
This push and pull by Real Madrid made both Manchester United and Cr7 agent Jorge Mendes nervous. So other tracks for the Portuguese have sprung up with Barcelona and Manchester City on pole.
That's why Real Madrid has decided to buy Cristiano Ronaldo.
The news of Barcelona about Cristiano Ronaldo has brought Real Madrid home. Perez, who would shortly become the president, forced the hand of the other managers and convinced them to close the Cristiano Ronaldo deal.
Real was terrified of not winning anything for the next few years as Barcelona would have an atomic attack composed of Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi.
Who knows how it would have gone with Cr7 and Pulce teammates …
Source: Blitz Quotidiano