Ex-Man United CEO reveals TRUTH behind failed Ronaldinho transfer in 2003

Updated: 16 Oct, 2024 • 0 • min read

Table of Contents

Ex-Man United CEO reveals TRUTH behind failed Ronaldinho transfer in 2003

Photo: Diario SPORT

Former Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon has now spoken about the truth on why the club didn't sign Ronaldinho in the summer of 2003.

With David Beckham's blockbuster move to Real Madrid, United were in the market for a marquee signing to replace their English talisman.

The Red Devils appeared to be in pole position to land Ronaldinho, who had emerged as a global superstar thanks to his performances for Paris Saint-Germain and Brazil.

However, the transfer failed to materialise, with the Brazilian star opting for a move to Barcelona instead.

It has previously been the understanding that Barcelona may have offered more money and that Ronaldinho eventually just changed his mind.

READ MORE: Ex-Spurs director lifts lid on Sol Campbell's Arsenal move

But Kenyon, who was United's chief executive between 2000 and 2003, has now opened up on why the deal actually fell through.

Speaking on the Rio Ferdinand Presents podcast, Kenyon suggested that United started to see red flags during the process of thrashing out a deal.

Normally, in these cases you're dealing with the player and his agent.

Here, we're dealing with the player, several agents and about 20 other people in the room. He's a great player, but suddenly we're into a whole different thing.

Injecting that sort of culture around training, not normally on time, which is different. The Brazilian health culture, different.

Fantastic player, but there's all sorts of other things that started to get introduced into all this, and he was clearly coming with a load of people.

The circumstances around Beckham's acrimonious exit may have also contributed to changing the club's opinion on the idea recruiting of Ronaldinho in his place.

Beckham's star had risen so high by that point in his career that he was increasingly butting heads with Sir Alex Ferguson, ultimately leading to the player's departure.

You know what United was like at that time. It was an institution, no one got treated differently than the rest.

This started to become a bigger issue than the money. We sort of got an agreement with the club, got an agreement with the player, but we came back and said, "On balance, I don't think this is [right]."

David [Beckham] had just moved on and part of that noise was around the environment.

Whilst missing out on Ronaldinho was a significant blow, United went on to sign an unknown 18-year-old by the name of Cristiano Ronaldo for £12.24 million.