'I cried for hours over Man Utd & Real Madrid deal collapsing – it cost me big'

Goalkeeping icon Keylor Navas broke down in tears when his high-profile transfer to Manchester United fell through.

However, it wasn't sadness that conjured tears from the Costa Rican on deadline day in the summer of 2015. Navas was being used as a bargaining chip for United in a swap deal that would have seen David De Gea move to Real Madrid.

The transfer never came to fruition, however, due to an alleged fax machine malfunction that meant the paperwork wasn't submitted on time. As a result, both goalkeepers stayed with their respective clubs, and Navas expressed his relief that he got to stick around in the Spanish capital.

"I cried that night when I found out I was staying, it was a build-up of emotions," he told Spanish radio station Cadena COPE (via the Manchester Evening News) in September 2015. "I didn't want to leave, Madrid is my home.

"I never wanted to leave Real Madrid. My agent told me to be alert to my phone. We had to go to Barajas [airport], although I never actually got on a plane - I was in a waiting room. I thought that if God wanted me to leave Madrid, it would be for the best, but he didn't want me to. . ."

Both parties ended up benefiting from the situation, as Navas was Real's no.1 during one of the most successful spells in football history. The 38-year-old was the key man between the posts as Real became the first club to win three consecutive Champions League titles (or European Cups) since Bayern Munich in the 1970s.

Premier League champion De Gea - who spent one season without a club before signing for Fiorentina last year - couldn't quite replicate his success at United. The 34-year-old added an FA Cup to his trophy cabinet in 2016 and later clinched the Europa League title, along with two Carabao Cups.

Navas eventually left Madrid in 2019 and spent the next five years on the books at Paris Saint-Germain. He spent the latter half of the 2022/23 season on loan at Nottingham Forest before leaving Paris last year with three Ligue 1 titles and three Coupes de France.

Despite being without a club since May last year, Navas has not officially announced his retirement from football. However, his legacy at Real cemented his status as one of the greatest goalkeepers of his generation, and one many a United fan may have wished they got their hands on almost a decade ago.