Cristiano Ronaldo et Lionel Messi had the possibility of evolving within the same club, if the president of the Barça of the time, Joan Laporta, hadn’t made a bad choice.
In 2003, the Barça aimed atthem priority recruits: Ronaldinho and Rafael Marquez. And the entourage of the latter had another player to propose to President Joan Laporta.
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“They offered us Cristiano Ronaldo. He was at Sporting at this moment. One of his agents said they had a player they had to sell to Manchester United for € 19 million, but they were prepared to sell him to us for € 17 million ”.
Despite this proposal from Sporting, the Barça declined the offer.
“We thought we already had what we needed, so we refused and I don’t regret it not“, Revealed Joan Laporta.
However, there is a whole other, very ridiculous reason than that revealed by the ex-president of the Catalan club, having prevented the signing of CR7. Indeed, the Barça loved to recruit wingers from Sporting Lisbon at the time.
This is where they attracted Luis Figo and his replacement Simão. Then they bought a third winger at Sporting, Ricardo Quaresma. But the latter failed to win in the Catalan team, and suddenly, the Barça had some doubts when recruiting the kid who had taken his place at Sporting, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Still, both parties, whether the Barça or CR7 fared well, as Cristiano became a legend at Real Madrid and the Barça found his own hero, a certain Lionel Messi, several years later.
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/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/eluniverso/52QBBH3R6JGX7M3FI7GAKPKZFY.jpg?resize=150%2C150&ssl=1 "Don Francisco returns to ‘TV’ today with his reflections 2021 | Television | Entertainment")