Arsene Wenger has revealed that Cristiano Ronaldo almost joined Arsenal instead of Manchester United from former club Sporting, in 2003, and has claimed that Carlos Queiroz ’s influence was what pushed Ronaldo to sign with Manchester United instead.

Wenger commented:

“Carlos knew him well and since then they have signed Anderson and Nani from Portugal because of Carlos Queiroz,”

“It’s like me signing players from France because I know them well. The price that we discussed was much lower — it was divided by three — but, of course, he has proved to be a bargain.

“I had Ronaldo at the training ground. I showed him around and I gave him a shirt. It has got his name on the back. I wanted him to be here. He went to Man United and made a career and he would have done that here. I saw that he was an exceptional talent but we could not predict that he would become the player that he is.”

In reality, however, it seems that Ronaldo may have been encouraged to Manchester United simply because Ferguson was prepared to pay more money for quality players than Wenger. Perhaps we could also speculate whether Ronaldo would have flourished into the player he is now if he had joined Emirates and worked with different trainers and an entirely different style of manager.

Source:setanta