Manchester United have a lure that only perhaps Barcelona and Real Madrid can match after attracting some star names to Old Trafford over the years. Cristiano Ronaldo is arguably the most famous name to have donned the red shirt of United in recent memory, but Ronaldinho is living proof that there is a finite number of players they couldn’t quite convince to move to Manchester.
If things had gone differently at certain periods in the club’s history, Sir Alex Ferguson might have been able to bring some other world-renowned players to the Premier League when United had dominated the Premier League and Europe in the 2000s.
Instead, the Scot had to settle for winning the treble with the ‘Class of 92’ stars David Beckham, Gary Neville and Paul Scholes, adding the likes of Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Roy Keane into the mix as some of the best to have graced the pitch for the Red Devils.
He wasn’t the only one though. David Moyes, Jose Mourinho and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer missed out on some key names who went on to establish themselves elsewhere.
Express Sport narrows it down to 15 players that went close to joining United, but never quite signed on the dotted line.
Erling Haaland: Manchester City’s record-breaking striker was on the verge of joining United in January 2020 when the £17million deal broke down over a release clause. He subsequently joined Borussia Dortmund and has broken dozens of scoring records since then.
“Well I did try. But when I met his father he was quite formidable. I got a shake of the head. That’s all I got.
“He did say ‘my grandfather was Milan, my father’s Milan, I’m Milan and my son is Milan. Forget it’.”
(Image: Getty)
Paolo Maldini: As the famous story goes, Ferguson had a chat with Paolo Maldini’s father Cesare as he tried to engineer a move to Old Trafford, only to be met with resistance from the diehard Milan fan – and he spent his entire career with the Rossoneri. The Scot said: “Well I did try. But when I met his father he was quite formidable. I got a shake of the head. That’s all I got.”
“He did say ‘my grandfather was Milan, my father’s Milan, I’m Milan and my son is Milan. Forget it’.”
(Image: Getty)
