Manchester United hopes to kidnap a transfer for a former Arsenal goal, but this time the Gunners are not caught cold.
The Red Devils opened talks for Benjamin Sesko after sent a delegation to Germany to meet RB Leipzig officers.
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Talksport understands that the striker prefers a move to Man United about Newcastle, who also urges his signature.
Arsenal was strongly connected to the 22-year-old this summer, but has weakened since then to sign an alternative goal.
Mikel Arteta’s team has completed a deal of 63.7 million pounds For Viktor Gyokoker, who ironically was also interested in Man United.
However, the 27-year-old rejected the opportunity to reunite with the former manager Ruben Amorim in Old Trafford.
Arsenal would have been awarded to feel a feeling of deja vu when United kidnapped after her negotiations Sporting Lisbon.
In 2003, the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo for £ 12 million, a record for a teenager in England.
Arsenal had kept an eye on the Portuguese as a teenager, and Arsene Wenger wanted to bring the 18-year-old to London.
In 2010 in conversation with the GQ Magazine, Ronaldo said about Fourfourtwo: “It is true. I was only a centimeter from the signing for arsenal.
“I saw Arsene Wenger three times with my mother. It was very short to be closed.
“After I had signed for United, she and I watched a Premier League game on TV and she shouted: ‘I know this guy – I liked it.”
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How close was Ronaldo at the signing for Arsenal?
Ronaldo’s meeting with Wenger, who took place months before moving to MAN United, was in manufacturing for almost three years.
The former Arsenal scout Damien Comolli claimed that he played the five-time balloon d’Or winner for the first time as a 15-year-old in 2000.
At that time, Ronaldo played in a youth tournament in France, and no other Premier League club was in the race to sign it.
“When I saw Ronaldo for the first time, he was at the Montaigu tournament. He was 15 years old,” Comolli told SFR Sport 1.
“He played Japan and I immediately thought” What is it? “
“He visited the Arsenal training center twice. Nobody knows about it. He met Henry, who was his idol. And when the time had come to complete the transfer, there was no money.
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“A few months later, Manchester United teamed up with Sporting and played a friendly against her.
“Ronaldo destroyed her and Ferguson acted immediately.”
The story of Ronaldo’s auditions against Man United remains a famous chapter in a famous career.
In a friendly on August 7, 2003, the future Portugal captain John O’Shea gave a hard evening when United lost 3-1 against Sporting.
Since then, Rio Ferdinand has jokingly reminded that his defender needed an “oxygen tank” after playing against a young Ronaldo.
Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes said to GQ: “This really happened. Everyone wanted Cristiano – Real, Juventus, Barcelona. But only Arsenal and Manchester United tried to take him from Sporting Lisbon this season. The others wanted to do it in sports for at least a year.
“But everything was already there with United, since an agreement had been made the day before the game [a friendly between Manchester United and Sporting]. “”
The former man United Masseuse Rod Thornley claimed Ronaldo’s performance in this friendship convinced Ferguson to try to give a deal in the changing rooms after only 45 minutes.
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Within the history of Ronaldo’s man United Transfer
When Thornley spoke in the Podcast of Euro Thrash, Thornley recalled: “We played the game and it was brilliant. He was absolutely excellent. So, the half -time coming -The player of the players is a side of a corridor and management and medical staff on the other;
“We sorted out the players, they are on the way to the second half and we come to just change to go out for the second half.
“Sir Alex is there with David Gill and a representative of Sporting Lisbon and whether it was the agent, I don’t know and you will discuss:” We want to take him now, we want him tonight “.”
The former deputy chairman of Arsenal, David Dein, admitted that his club was still at the table for Ronaldo, but was blown out of the water by United.
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“I was asked by our chief scout if I would go with him to see a boy for Portuguese U18 and he was only 16,” said your counterpart Sky Sports.
“You can imagine who this young man was. It was Cristiano Ronaldo. The following day Manchester United came and blew us out of the water. These things happen.”
Five days later, Ronaldo was red and even received the NO7 shirt cleared by David Beckham.
“Everything has changed in this game,” the ex-sports director of football, Carlos Freitas, told Fourfourtwo. “The deal was completed within 24 hours and Cristiano immediately went to England.”
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Ronaldo career statistics
Sporting Lisbon (2002-03): 31 games – 5 goals
Man United (2003-09) and (2021-22): 346 Game-145 Goals
Real Madrid (2009-18): 438 games – 450 goals
Juventus (2018-2021): 134 games – 101 goals
Al Nassr (2023-): 111 games – 99 goals
Over two decades later and the rest, as they say, the story is – and Ronaldo creates a legacy as one of the greatest ever.
Perhaps Wenger has that his greatest regret in Arsenal has not signed the 40-year-old since he had the chance.
In an interview with The Guardian in 2020, the legendary French manager was asked who he regretted not to sign the most.
He explained: “Oof! I would say there is no player, there is 50! On the other hand, maybe the next one [to that] Was Cristiano Ronaldo when he signed United for Man.
“We had an agreement with Sporting and you took United with Carlos Queiroz As a co -trainer, and they simply beat us quickly and took Ronaldo with them. But we basically had an agreement.
“He had the Arsenal shirt, I ate with him and his mother on the training area for lunch!
“It’s an example, but there were so many. The story of a large club is full of missing great players!”