{"id":292070,"date":"2023-09-26T05:34:20","date_gmt":"2023-09-26T05:34:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/?p=292070"},"modified":"2023-09-26T05:34:20","modified_gmt":"2023-09-26T05:34:20","slug":"15-players-man-utd-nearly-signed-including-ronaldinho-and-chelsea-icon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/15-players-man-utd-nearly-signed-including-ronaldinho-and-chelsea-icon\/","title":{"rendered":"15 players Man Utd nearly signed including Ronaldinho and Chelsea icon"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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&#8217;t quite convince to move to Manchester.<\/p>\n<p>If things had gone differently at certain periods in the club&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, the Scot had to settle for winning the treble with the &#8216;Class of 92&#8217; 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.<\/p>\n<p>He wasn&#8217;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.<\/p>\n<p><em>Express Sport<\/em> narrows it down to 15 players that went close to joining United, but never quite signed on the dotted line.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/940x\/secondary\/Ronaldinho-Man-Utd-4977397.jpg?r=1695660874153\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Ronaldinho:<\/strong> The Brazilian magician was targeted as a replacement for David Beckham, who was also linked with Barcelona. But the Blaugrana agreed a \u00a323m deal for the PSG winger, with Sir Alex Ferguson blaming chief executive Peter Kenyon for failing to &#8216;get the job done&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/940x\/secondary\/Erling-Haaland-4977375.jpg?r=1695660874278\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Erling Haaland:<\/strong> Manchester City&#8217;s record-breaking striker was on the verge of joining United in January 2020 when the \u00a317million deal broke down over a release clause. He subsequently joined Borussia Dortmund and has broken dozens of scoring records since then.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWell I did try. But when I met his father he was quite formidable. I got a shake of the head. That\u2019s all I got.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe did say \u2018my grandfather was Milan, my father\u2019s Milan, I\u2019m Milan and my son is Milan. Forget it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/940x\/secondary\/4977438.jpg?r=1695660874330\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paul Gascoigne:<\/strong> Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson was ready to move for Gascoigne after being dazzled by the midfielder &#8211; 20 at the time &#8211; back in 1987. But United were caught napping, with Tottenham stealing in by offering Gascoigne&#8217;s parents a house in the North East to reside in.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/940x\/secondary\/4977425.jpg?r=1695660874411\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Zinedine Zidane:<\/strong> The Frenchman had caught the eye of United&#8217;s former chief scout Les Kershaw in 1995 when he was at Bordeaux. However, his loyalty to Eric Cantona meant more to the Scot and he decided against making a move. In 2001, Zidane joined Real Madrid in a world-record \u00a346.8m transfer from Juventus and the World Cup winner is widely recognised as one of football&#8217;s most talented midfielders.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.images.express.co.uk\/img\/dynamic\/67\/940x\/secondary\/Paolo-Maldini-4977449.jpg?r=1695660874463\"><\/p>\n<p><strong>Paolo Maldini:<\/strong> As the famous story goes, Ferguson had a chat with Paolo Maldini&#8217;s father Cesare as he tried to engineer a move to Old Trafford, only to be met with resistance from the diehard Milan fan &#8211; and he spent his entire career with the Rossoneri. The Scot said: \u201cWell I did try. But when I met his father he was quite formidable. I got a shake of the head. That\u2019s all I got.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe did say \u2018my grandfather was Milan, my father\u2019s Milan, I\u2019m Milan and my son is Milan. Forget it\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you&#8217;ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.express.co.uk\/sport\/football\/1816526\/Man-Utd-players-nearly-signed-Ronaldinho-Zidane\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292069,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>15 players Man Utd nearly signed including Ronaldinho and Chelsea icon - Tell My Sport<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tellmysport.com\/soccer\/15-players-man-utd-nearly-signed-including-ronaldinho-and-chelsea-icon\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"15 players Man Utd nearly signed including Ronaldinho and Chelsea icon - Tell My Sport\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"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. 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