Ronaldo nearly joined Liverpool Before leaving Sporting Lisbon for Man Utd

New light has been shed on how Portuguese superstar Cristiano Ronaldo nearly made his bow in English football with Liverpool rather than Manchester United.

Ronaldo became the most expensive teenager in English football history in the summer of 2003 when joining the Old Trafford club for £12.24m and then-Reds manager Gerard Houllier has since admitted how he turned down the chance to sign the forward, who has gone on to become one of the undisputed greats of the game.

Before leaving Sporting Lisbon for Manchester, a 19-year-old Ronaldo was quoted as saying: “Liverpool are one of the best clubs in England and it would be a dream for any player to represent a club of such traditions.

"I will have to hope they make an offer that is good for both Sporting and myself.

"The English league is not one of my favourites, but it is very interesting. I think my way of playing can be reconciled in the Premiership. If a player has quality then he can play anywhere."

Houllier's then assistant-manager at Anfield, Phil Thompson, has told the Athletic how concerns over how the teenager's proposed salary would impact the club's wage structure - along with the hopes for promising French duo Anthony Le Tallec and Florent Sinama-Pongolle who had just arrived from Le Havre - led to Liverpool cooling on the idea, which allowed their Old Trafford rivals to swoop.

Thompson said: "He was being touted around everyone.

“Tony Henry, the former Man City midfielder, was working for (agent) Paul Stretford, who was tasked by Jorge Mendes to drum up interest in England.

They were desperate to get Ronaldo out of Sporting and invited me over for a game. I was told the fee was £4 million but they explained that it could be paid over the course of a four-year contract so essentially it was £1 million per year.

“I asked what kind of salary he would want and they said it was £1 million per year after tax. That was a lot for an 18-year-old kid but they said that was negotiable.

“It was a Sunday and I explained to them that I needed to go back to Liverpool and speak to Gerard Houllier and see what we could do. I fed all the information back to Gerard, who said he would speak to [chief executive] Rick Parry.

“Lo and behold, the following week I'm at Melwood when the yellow ticker on Sky Sports News says, 'Manchester United sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Sporting for £12.2 million.' I couldn't believe my eyes.

“How had the fee gone up from £4 million to £12.2 million in a few days? Gerard asked me to phone Tony to find out what had gone on. Tony told me that when he'd got off the plane on the Monday he had got a call to say he was off the deal. It was down to Stretford and Mendes instead.

“It was astonishing that the fee trebled. He was clearly a big talent but no one could have predicted back then how great he was going to be.”

After a few seasons to truly find his at feet at United, Ronaldo won three Premier Leagues and a Champions League at Old Trafford and winning the Ballon d'Or in 2008 before securing a then-world record £80m to Real Madrid the following summer.

The Portuguese won two La Ligas, four Champions Leagues and four more Ballon d'Ors at the Bernabeu before moving to Juventus in 2018 where he won the Serie A title in his first season with the Bianconeri.