Former Manchester United chief executive Peter Kenyon has revealed why the club’s move to sign Ronaldinho broke down in 2003.
Manchester United were interested in a deal to sign Ronaldinho from Paris Saint-Germain that summer, as the Red Devils sought a statement signing following the sale of David Beckham to Real Madrid.
Barcelona eventually won the race to sign the Brazilian, who won two FIFA World Player of the Year awards and a Ballon d’Or during his time with the Spanish side.
Speculation has surrounded Manchester United’s failure to get a deal done in the last two decades, with reports that Kenyon changed the club’s original offer to PSG.
Speaking on Rio Ferdinand Presents, Kenyon denied those claims and said issues with Ronaldinho’s entourage were behind the deal breaking down.
“Normally, in these cases you’re dealing with the player and his agent. Here, we’re dealing with the player, several agents and about 20 other people in the room. He’s a great player, but suddenly we’re into a whole different thing,” Kenyon explained.
“Injecting that sort of culture around training, not normally on time, which is different. The Brazilian health culture, different. Fantastic player, but there’s all sorts of other things that started to get introduced into all this, and he was clearly coming with a load of people.
“You know what United was like at that time. It was an institution, no one got treated differently than the rest. This started to become a bigger issue than the money. We sort of got an agreement with the club, got an agreement with the player, but we came back and said, ‘On balance, I don’t think this is [right]’. David [Beckham] had just moved on and part of that noise was around the environment.”
