Valencia had an agreement in place to sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United in 2006 following the fallout from that summer’s World Cup.
Ronaldo had a high-profile falling out with United teammate Wayne Rooney at that year’s tournament following a clash between Portugal and England in the knockout stage.
That sparked rumours that the winger was seeking an exit from England, and El Mundo Deportivo now carries the details of how Spanish giants Valencia had an agreed terms to sign the future star.
Amadeo Carboni, who was sporting director at the Mestalla at the time, has said: “I arrived at the right time. Valencia was the city that benefited the most from this economic, social and sports ‘boom’. We had found the economic resources to achieve it, we had arrangements with Nike and Coca Cola. Ronaldo at that time was already earning €10m net a year, it was a lot.”
However, it was said that Cristiano wanted to play with players like David Villa, Raúl Albiol and Pablo Aimar, with an agreement seemingly in place: “We had the contracts signed by Jorge Mendes, nothing was missing between Ronaldo, his agent and me. However, the deal did not materialise.”
Ronaldo eventually did leave United to move to La Liga when he joined Real Madrid in the summer of 2009 and went on to break multiple goalscoring records at the club.