Top 10 football transfers that never happened

#9 Cristiano Ronaldo to Arsenal

In 2003, before Manchester United came into the picture, Arsenal were agonisingly close to signing Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese winger came for a trial at Arsenal’s training ground and was so impressive that Wenger gave him the Arsenal number 9 shirt with ‘Ronaldo’ printed on its back.

But when the Arsenal officials contacted Sporting Lisbon, the asking price was never met and the deal fell through. Wenger later admitted the same in 2008 when he was quoted on Arsenal.com as saying:

“I had Ronald at the training ground. I showed him around and I gave him a shirt. It had got his name on the back.

“But in the end, it was a question of the amount of transfer fee between the two clubs. Of course, he has proved to be a bargain [at £12.25 million]. But the price that we discussed was in fact much lower, it was divided by three.”