The Standard Group Plc is a multi-media organization with investments in media platforms spanning newspaper print operations, television, radio broadcasting, digital and online services. The Standard Group is recognized as a leading multi-media house in Kenya with a key influence in matters of national and international interest.

Standard Group Plc HQ Office,
The Standard Group Center,Mombasa Road.
P.O Box 30080-00100,Nairobi, Kenya.
Telephone number: 0203222111, 0719012111
Email: [email protected]

NEWS & CURRENT AFFAIRS

The Nairobian

Arsene Wenger outlines just how close Cristiano Ronaldo was to joining Arsenal

Football

By Mirror | Oct 20, 2020

**Former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. [Internet]**

Arsene Wenger has revealed how close he came to signing Cristiano Ronaldo - and says he still trembles at the thought of what he and Thierry Henry could have achieved together at Arsenal.

Ronaldo has become a global superstar since joining Manchester United from Sporting Lisbon in 2003, going on to star for Real Madrid, Juventus and Portugal.

He has won five Champions League titles and been named Ballon d'Or winner five times, as well as winning four Club World Cups and domestic titles in England, Spain and Italy.

The 35-year-old has scored 641 career goals at club level plus another 101 on the international stage as Portugal's all-time leading goalscorer.

At United, Ronaldo helped fire Sir Alex Ferguson's side to three Premier League titles, the Champions League and the Club World Cup before joining Madrid in an £85million move in 2009.

Keep Reading

But it could so easily have been Arsenal who benefited from his services for those years, as Wenger has detailed in an interview published this week.

And at the time that would have given the Gunners a fearsome forward line of Ronaldo, Henry and Dennis Bergkamp.

**Cristiano Ronaldo in action for Manchester United before moving to Real Madrid. [PHOTO: AGENCIES]**

And Wenger says the idea of such an attack still makes him perspire.

“When I had Thierry, I could have signed (Cristiano) Ronaldo," Wenger told the latest edition of FourFourTwo.

"Can you imagine what they could have done together?

"That makes you sweat a little bit, and I was very close to doing it. I thought it was all done.

Holding his index finger and thumb within a millimetre of each other to illustrate just how narrowly he missed out, Wenger told the magazine: “It was that close.

“But I would say that every club could tell you stories like that.”

Wenger last week admitted that Ronaldo had even been given an Arsenal shirt ready for a switch to north London.

But United's link-up with Sporting got in the way of a deal.

“We had an agreement with Sporting and Man United took Carlos Queiroz as assistant coach, and they just outbid us quickly and took Ronaldo," Wenger said.

"But we had an agreement basically.

“He had the shirt of Arsenal - I had lunch with him and his mother at the training ground!"

During his 22-year spell in the Arsenal hotseat, Wenger guided the Gunners to three Premier League titles, seven FA Cups and seven Community Shield wins.

It's a very respectable trophy haul - but it's not hard to imagine it could have been so much bigger had the Frenchman not been pipped to Ronaldo's signature by his great rival Ferguson all those years ago.