Peter Kenyon has revealed the truth about Man United’s failed move for Ronaldinho, saying that it was NOT down to finances.
The Red Devils were chasing the Brazilian legend in the summer of 2003 after he had emerged as a global superstar thanks to his performances for Paris Saint-Germain and Brazil.
Man United had already been looking for a big-name signing after losing David Beckham to Real Madrid, while the signing of a young Cristiano Ronaldo from Sporting Lisbon was already in the works, regardless of what happened with Ronaldinho.
Speaking on Rio Ferdinand Presents on YouTube, Kenyon said of the Brazilian star: “We did chase him hard. We did look at him hard.”
A theory was then put to Kenyon that Man United lowered their offer at the last minute, to which he said: “Absolutely wrong. This was the same as any other transfer.
“Alex [Ferguson] would be involved in it. Critical decisions, why he’d want him, where he wants him, where he would play etc. So, Alex was involved all the way through.”
Explaining why the Ronaldinho deal went south, Kenyon said: “Normally, in these cases you’re dealing with the player and his agent.
“Here, we’re dealing with the player, several agents and about 20 other people in the room. He’s a great player, but suddenly we’re into a whole different thing.
‘Injecting that sort of culture around training, not normally on time, which is different. The Brazilian health culture, different. Fantastic player, but there’s all sorts of other things that started to get introduced into all this, and he was clearly coming with a load of people.
‘You know what United was like at that time. It was an institution, no one got treated differently than the rest.’
Kenyon went on: “This started to become a bigger issue than the money,’ Kenyon explained.
“We sort of got an agreement with the club, got an agreement with the player, but we came back and said ‘on balance, I don’t think this is [going to work]’.
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“David had just moved on and part of that noise was around the environment.”
Ronaldinho went on to join Barcelona for £30million that summer, becoming the best player in the world during his time at the Nou Camp.
He went on to score 94 goals and make 71 assists in 207 appearances over five seasons with Barcelona, winning two LaLiga titles and a Champions League along the way.
It was during this time that he was also crowned Balon d’Or winner in 2005, as well as winning FIFPro World Player of the year in 2005 and 2006.
He later spent three years with AC Milan before heading back to Brazil in 2011, while also scoring 33 goals in 97 appearances for his country.
