CRISTIANO RONALDO and Gareth Bale both agreed to join Manchester United in 2013 – but the club wouldn’t cough up £200m.
United legend Patrice Evra revealed that Sir Alex Ferguson believed Ronaldo’s return was nearly 100 per cent agreed, four years after the Portugal star left for Real Madrid in a then-record £80m deal.
And the legendary Red Devils boss also worked on trying to land Bale from Tottenham at the same time.
But then Ferguson – who had just won the Premier League title – was forced to confirm to his players that he would in fact be retiring.
Former left-back Evra said on The Obi One podcast: “It was one of the most sad days. I didn’t cry, I was in shock.
“The reason why, is two weeks before, he brought me into his office and said: “Look at those people, they think I am going to retire, I am going to be here another 10 years but we need to win more Champions Leagues.”
“He said: ‘Patrice, Cristiano has agreed 99 per cent to come back and Gareth Bale.’ He needed £200m and the club refused. Now they have spent a billion, whatever.
“I remembered when I got out of his office, I was like, ‘Cristiano is back, Gareth Bale, we are back in business’. Imagine. That’s what he said.”
Since then, United have spent a record £1.19bn on transfers and £40m on managers while running up a debt of nearly £1bn. Still no title, though.
As a result Bale, who was flying at Spurs, instead joined Madrid in the summer of 2013 for an updated world record fee of £86m.
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David Moyes came in at Old Trafford and signed Marouane Fellaini instead.
Ronaldo would go on to stay at Los Blancos until 2018, winning four more Champions League titles.
Wanting a new challenge, he joined Italian giants Juventus and picked up back-to-back Serie A titles in 2019 and 2020.
He would eventually get his comeback move to Old Trafford in 2021, where he was named in the Premier League Team of the Year, scoring 16 goals in an otherwise underwhelming campaign for United.
But Ronaldo left for Al-Nassr just over a year later after launching a verbal attack on the club in a tell-all explosive interview with Piers Morgan.
Bale himself returned to Tottenham on a season-long loan in 2020 before returning to Madrid for a term.
The Welsh star joined Los Angeles in 2022 and announced his retirement a year later.
