It was 2003 and David Beckham had just left Manchester United, leaving space for a new leader and superstar at Old Trafford.The Red Devils already had an idea of who should replace Becks, and their choice was more than reasonable – Ronaldinho. The sensational Brazilian was one of the 2002 FIFA World Cup stars and was exquisite at Paris Saint-Germain.Peter Kenyon, who was United’s chief executive between 2000 and 2003, revealed that the deal between the club and Ronaldinho was almost sealed…”We did chase him hard. We did look at him hard,” Kenyon opened up, speaking to the ‘Rio Ferdinand Presents’ podcast. “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.”Boys, pack your bags! Mazraoui and De Ligt are waiting for youKenyon insisted that the money was never a problem before revealing the true issue with Ronaldinho at the time.”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]. David had just moved on and part of that noise was around the environment.”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.”##NAJAVA_MECA_8414737####EDITORS_CHOICE##As per Kenyon, injecting that sort of Brazilian culture around training and health just seemed inappropriate. “He was a fantastic player, but there are 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.”After missing out on Ronaldinho, United went on to sign Cristiano Ronaldo. Still, the Brazilian won the Ballon d’Or in 2005, while the Red Devils didn’t win the league for four years after CR7’s arrival.
