With three Champions League titles to his name, Real Madrid star Toni Kroos has set a standard Manchester City are striving to reach yet he once looked certain to be chasing those dreams for City's cross-town rivals.
Kroos is on Wednesday set to be part of the Madrid midfield who will seek to deny City a second consecutive Champions League Final. Despite the wishes of then-Bayern boss Pep Guardiola, Kroos moved to Spain after helping Germany win the 2014 World Cup. For many months, however, Old Trafford - rather than the Bernabeu - had looked his most likely destination, and Kroos had even given his word on the transfer.
During the 2013-14 season, David Moyes was so determined to bring Kroos to Manchester United that he made a personal trip to Munich to meet the player and his family, even meeting Kroos' son Leon, who was seven months old. Moyes' wife Pamela was said to have been particularly taken by Leon.
At the time, Kroos felt undervalued at Bayern Munich and after speaking to Moyes, he and his partner Jessica were convinced to make the move.
'I knew beforehand that United wanted me,' said Kroos. 'And Moyes absolutely underlined that. It was a really nice afternoon with very pleasant people.. We talked a lot about United's football plan, which convinced me.
'But we also got to know each other as people. We knew quite a bit about the Moyes family afterwards. We talked about how we lived and how we all imagined life as a family.
'In the end we broke up to do it. So we agreed verbally. The next step should be to look at everything on the spot in Manchester. The move would not have been that complicated - after all, we only had one child at the time, seven months old. It would all have worked.'
The pieces seemed to be falling into place perfectly. Kroos' contract negotiations with Bayern were at deadlock and before speaking to the player, Moyes had conducted lengthy discussions with his representatives, the highly respected Volker Struth and Sascha Breese. He had also watched Kroos run the show as Bayern won 2-0 at Borussia Monchengladbach in January 2014.
Everything changed on April 22, when Moyes was sacked less than 48 hours after a 2-0 defeat by former club Everton. Though the United hierarchy were still interested in Kroos, Moyes had driven the whole matter. Without him, the situation was entirely different.
During the World Cup, Struth and Breese negotiated with Madrid and Barcelona, and Kroos eventually settled for Madrid after a phone call from Carlo Ancelotti - the same coach who is trying to thwart City tonight/on Wednesday.
'I'm not someone who thinks about hypotheticals,' Kroos added. 'Yes, it was close. I almost went to Manchester United. But that's not how things turned out.
'I don't have these what-if-thoughts. Because there are no real answers to them. The only thing I can say with certainty is that I probably wouldn't have won the Champions League three times with Manchester United.'
Despite the best efforts of Robbie Williams, who struck up a friendship with Kroos when the pair met at an awards ceremony 2016, Kroos appears unlikely ever to move to United now.
The 32-year-old's contract with Madrid concludes at the end of next season but he said: 'United is too big a club to be there for a year or two. This is not a club where you go to finish your career. You have to be there for three or four years and both the player and club must have a clear idea.'
A deep thinker about the game, Kroos is already working on his legacy. He helped develop an app, Toni Kroos Academy, during lockdown, to encourage children to improve their skills and take regular exercise.
While his views on a possible future at United may not make him especially popular with their supporters, Kroos can become a hero for them this evening/on Wednesday evening.