“I told Manchester United to demand £150m for Ronaldo” – Ferguson

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that he told
Manchester United to demand 150million pounds
from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009 and
believes that the Spanish giants would have paid it.
Ronaldo became the most expensive footballer when
he moved to Madrid for 80million pounds, but
Ferguson remains disappointed that former United
chief executive David Gill, ignored his advice and
turned down the opportunity to make more money.
“I told David Gill to ask for 150 million pounds.
Perez would have paid,” Ferguson is quoted by AS
as telling the player’s official digital fan magazine,
CR7.
“The only thing that hurt me, and I said this
repeatedly to David Gill, was that we didn’t demand
enough.
“I told David, ‘Ask for 150 million.’ He said: ‘Don’t
be silly. They’ll never pay 150 million.’”
Ronaldo has gone on to score 238 times in 233
matches for Real and was recently crownd the
World’s Best Player by FIFA. The La Liga club has
gone on to break the world transfer record for Gareth
Bale, leaving Ferguson to ponder what might have
been.
“I believe he cost 80 million pounds or something
like that,” Ferguson added. “But I still keep asking
myself what senor Perez would have said if we
asked for 150. Considering that they signed Gareth
Bale for 85 million pounds, I believe they would have
agreed to pay between 80 and 150 million. I am
sure, because I know that Perez knew perfectly the
quality of the player he was getting, as shown by
Cristiano’s stats at United.
“That is the only disappointing aspect. If we had got
150 million, I would have kept talking about it for
the rest of my life, because it would have been
fabulous to receive that amount of money, not just
from Real Madrid but from any football club.
Nevertheless, Cristiano left with my blessing and we
received a fair amount.”