Cristiano Ronaldo could very well have finished at FC Barcelona without the intervention of Ronaldinho.
Ronaldinho was a great teacher for Lionel Messi. The Brazilian nurtured the Argentine from an early age in Barcelona, and the current club captain has grown a lot under his tutelage.
But this opportunity almost did not happen, if Joan Laporta had signed Cristiano Ronaldo
“Nosu were close to signing Ronaldinho and Rafa Marquez,” Laporta said in a discussion with Twitter account Iniestazo.
“The Marquez people suggested Cristiano Ronaldo to us. He was at Sporting Clube at the time. One of his agents said they had a player they sold to [Manchester] United for 19 million, but they would sell it to us. for 17 million “.
“But we had already invested in Ronaldinho at the time. Cristiano was playing more on one side than in the middle. We thought we were covered so we turned him down and I don’t regret it.”
Modern football could be completely different if Laporta had signed Cristiano … Imagine a Ronaldo-Messi attack?
A dream duo that may still be reunited in the future. Perhaps at Juventus Turin, Leo Messi being at the end of his lease at Barça this summer. Or, in MLS, at Inter Miami or in another American franchise.
As a reminder, according to the latest study from the site specializing in transfers “Transfermarkt”, the price of La Pulga has fallen by 20 million euros to reach 80 million euros.
At 33, Messi is still fourth on the list of most expensive LaLiga Santander players and is behind Joao Felix, Jan Oblak and Ansu Fati.
Tobias Blaseio, Transfermarkt manager for Spain, has explained why Messi’s value has fallen.
“Messi is slowly reaching the last years of his career and Barcelona are going through an institutional crisis,” he said.
“After almost 10 years of being worth more than 100 million euros, it has now suffered that 20 million euros drop.”
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