Gerard Houllier: FC Liverpool rejected Cristiano Ronaldo

FC Liverpool planned to sign Cristiano Ronaldo of Sporting in 2003, as Gerard Houllier revealed. But in the end the Reds decided against it because it would have cost too much money.

“I saw him at the U21 tournament in Toulon – then we wanted him,” said the Frenchman, who coached Liverpool from 1998 to 2004, in Liverpool Echo. “We had certain salary levels and did not want to pay him the salary he demanded,” was ultimately the reason why they decided against him.

“I’ve maintained that we won’t change our salary structure. I thought that anything else would lead to disgruntlement in the cabin,” the 70-year-old continued. “It would certainly have been a turmoil if the other players had known that we were even considering paying so much money for an 18-year-old child,” confirms Houllier’s former assistant Phil Thomson.

Shortly before, two other mega talents at the time were engaged, as Thompson tells us. From today’s point of view especially bitter that both failed. “We had also just signed Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Anthony Le Tallec – both for far less money than Ronaldo charged.” Today Le Tallec plays in Romania, Sinama-Pongolle in Thailand.

“Ten days later, the news came that United had taken Ronaldo from Lisbon for 19 million euros. Gerard and I almost suffocated from our food,” the former co-trainer continued.

Ronaldo became one of the best Red Devils players in the world, switching to Real Madrid in 2009 for a circulated 94 million euros. After nine years in Madrid, the Portuguese changed to Juventus. Meanwhile, Houllier is retired today. His biggest success was winning the UEFA Cup in 2001.