‘Malaga were €2m away from signing teenage Cristiano Ronaldo’

Malaga were very close to buying Cristiano Ronaldo when he was a teenager, according to Spanish club recruiting boss Carlos Rincon.

The Portuguese star – who rose to win five Golden Balls in his career playing for Manchester United, Real Madrid and now Juventus – was spotted by Malatags scouts during his time at the Youth Academy at Sporting.

It was a time when Ronaldo was displaying his many attributes, which later helped him become one of the best players of his generation.

Rincon and his team had watched Ronaldo in Denmark at the U17 European Championships in 2002, and as a result, had begun the process of observing players.

“As a young Cristiano he was what he is now, a player with very significant physical power, with spectacular ball strikes,” Rincon said.

“I was told to go to big events in Europe, America and South Africa. I had to provide the numbers of the top three players in this tournament. I provided the numbers of the top three players as soon as the championship was over. Then I followed them on television,” he said.

“In the following week we contacted the players and their families to meet with their managers to see if we could bid. In this situation it was Ronaldo. He had not yet made his debut for Sporting’s first team and we made that offer through Jorge Mendes,” he added.

“We had the money raised. At the time, we made a bid of 1.5m euros but Ronaldo cost 3.5m euros. We didn’t transfer it because we didn’t have the money,” he concluded.