Not only did Cristiano Ronaldo say NO to Manchester United: Sean Connery, turned down an offer to play at Old Trafford

Thomas Sean Connery it’s more scotch than whiskey or kilt. He was born in Edinburgh in 1930 into a working class family. His father, a Catholic of Irish origins, worked in a factory and his mother, a Scottish Protestant, a cleaner, so little Sean had to earn a living from an early age by carrying out various activities such as bricklayer, milk delivery boy and polisher for coffin. . Before working on fiction for Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Connery He enlisted in the Royal Navy at the age of 16, assigned to the aircraft carrier HMS Formidable, but had to leave due to a duodenal ulcer. He lost a sailor, he gained an actor, even though many other things have happened in the meantime.

While serving as a sailor, Connery he trained his privileged physique (Big Tom -from Thomas, his middle name- was his nickname) practicing bodybuilding, which made it easier for him to work after he left the uniform as a model, truck driver, lifeguard and even entered the 1950 Mister Universe contest. According to his autobiography, was in third place even though gossips say it was no big deal. Go figure. The truth is that thanks to bodybuilding, Connery was discovered by the producers of the musical South Pacific, thus starting his prolific and successful acting career. The physique gives work and even saves your neck in a pinch, as happened to this universal Scotsman, who as a handsome young man was accosted on the streets of Edinburgh by six members of the Valdor Gang, a dangerous street gang, with very bad intend to steal his leather jacket. Bad idea because, instead of fleeing, Connery stood up to them and smashed the heads of two of their attackers. Since then, the future actor has earned a reputation as a tough guy in the Scottish capital.

A Scotsman in a Red Devils shirt? No thank you

Sean Conney He was closely associated with football since he was a boy in Edinburgh. He was a faithful followed by Celtic (Scottish Catholic team), although he later leaned more towards the archenemies of the Rangers (the Protestant team), a complete betrayal to the followers of the green clover team. The truth is that he took his first steps as a modest footballer bonnyrigg of the Scottish Second Division, was on trial in East Fifeteam that won the Scottish championship three times in its heyday in the 1940s, although that didn’t materialize, until a scout from Manchester United spotted this lanky right winger to recommend his addition to the Red Debts from Matthew Busby…but Connery said no. “I really wanted to accept, commented the actor years later, because I love football, but I realized that an elite footballer retires at 30 and I was 23. So I decided to be an actor and I think it’s It was one of the smartest moves of my life”. Perhaps the decision to reject United’s offer weighed heavily on the £25 per week (its value in 2021 would be 743 pounds, almost 3,000 pounds a month, about 3,500 euros at the exchange rate) which offered him a salary. Sean Connery combined football with theater and reasoned, sensibly, that he could earn more and have a much longer acting career than a footballer, not to mention that this decision could save his life, given that so much of the Manchester United team died in a tragic plane crash in Munich a few years after turning down this offer. Not everyone can afford to close the door Old Traffordunless your name is Cristiano Ronaldo or Sean Conney.

James Bond 007, another follower of Racing Avellaneda

Besides being a follower of Rangers (through his friendship with team president David Murray), Connery also became a loyal fan of the academy. The Avellaneda race He was traveling from Paris to London, a stop before Glasgow, where they were to play the first leg of the final Intercontinental Cup against Celtic in October 1967. The players of the Argentine team recognized the Scottish actor among the passengers and began to challenge him, especially ReubenBaker‘Diazwinger who he then played in Atletico Madrid. “You guys get the Cup,” they say, said Connery, a Rangers fan, we remember, and became a Rangers fan from that flight Academy. By the way, Racing won the title in the Montevideo tiebreaker and became the first Argentine team to become world champion.

many years later, Sean Conney kicked off the friendly they faced in Camp Nou in a friendly against Barça and a combination of Palestinian and Israeli players. It was November 2005 and James Bond stated that the Catalan team “He was the best in the world and they would play an important role in the Champions League”. Months later, the team Frank Rijkaard He cocked his big ears when he beat Arsenal. Since his visit to the Blaugrana stadium, Connery has kept a Barça shirt with the dorsal 007.

We have lost a great footballer, we have gained an outstanding actor

Sean Conney He was chosen in the casting of the first chapter of the saga James Bond by Ian Fleming, which began in 1961 with “Agent 007 vs. Dr.Nountil the Scot broke with the character ten years later with “diamonds for eternity”. From the most famous spy on the planet, Sean Conney played Colonel Arbuthnot in “Murder on the Orient Express”, to William of Baskerville in “The Name of The rose”; to Jim Malone in “The Untouchables by Elliot Ness”, for which he won the statuette and the Golden Globe for best supporting actor; to Harrison Ford’s father in “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade” (many scenes of this film were shot in Almería, in the Tabernas desert or on the beach of Mónsul, in Cabo de Gata), with a second Golden Globe; of the commander of Soviet submarines in “The Hunt for Red October”; until the withdrawal of him with “The League of Extraordinary Men” of the year 2003.

Sean Connery died in 2020 in his sleep at home in the Bahamas at the age of 90. His body was cremated and the ashes of the actor who refused to star in the Manchester United They are scattered in different parts of his beloved Scotland.