[Dirtycheat]

How United beat Real to capture Ronaldo

You look at Cristiano Ronaldo now and see the definitive Manchester United player writ large, scoring a goal a match, thrilling crowds at home and abroad, preparing to collect every honour in the game. Yet there was a time when Sir Alex Ferguson and his staff were unsure whether to go for Ronaldo, then 18, or his fellow Sporting Lisbon winger Ricardo Quaresma, 18 months older.


It was during Carlos Queiroz's first spell as assistant to Ferguson and the Portuguese coach recalls with amusement the labyrinthine tale of Ronaldo's capture, which happened only after his own departure for Real Madrid.

''I had always followed Cristiano's career," Queiroz said, ''and delivered my opinion strongly every time we discussed whether to sign him or Quaresma. We were not able to buy both and I was sure about Cristiano. So naturally when I left [in the summer of 2003] I made him my top target for Madrid. He headed the list I gave Jorge Valdano, the sporting director. But fortunately - I say that now - he ended up joining United instead. And it happened through me because Sporting Lisbon, where I was once the manager, used me to ask United to inaugurate their stadium [the Alvalade had been rebuilt for the forthcoming European Championship] by playing a pre-season friendly. So I went to Alex and he was happy to do it. Sporting won 3-1, Cristiano had a fantastic game -and all doubts about him disappeared."

That last bit is well chronicled and, as if Ferguson required a further push, his players implored him to sign the young phenomenon who now spearheads United's campaign to become champions of England and Europe. ''Alex had to make a quick decision after Lisbon," smiled Queiroz. ''Otherwise Jorge and I would have got Cristiano." Another strange reflection is that Ronaldo might have gone to Liverpool had the Anfield budget, in Gerard Houllier's time, been generous enough to permit big wages for a teenager. United could accommodate Ronaldo. They paid Sporting £12 million. Meanwhile Quaresma went to Barcelona for £4.5 million and did little, eventually falling out with the manager, Frank Rijkaard, and being sold for around the same fee to Porto as part of the deal that brought Deco to Camp Nou.

No wonder that, when Queiroz more recently recommended United go back to Portugal for Nani and Anderson, there was less of a debate. Or so you might think; Queiroz preferred to stress that ''the club have a first-class scouting operation now". Recruitment was a team effort. ''Anyway, if I were to take the credit for catching the big fish, I'd have to own up to the others." According to reports linking Queiroz with Benfica - he does not deny an aspiration to manage once more - Ferguson may again be looking for an assistant in the summer. He is unlikely to be short of candidates and there is always the coaching grapevine, which came up with Queiroz's name in 2002. Before then the men had met only once, to discuss Quinton Fortune's availability for South Africa, of whom Queiroz was manager; he resigned after seeing them through to the 2002 World Cup.

He had been at Old Trafford one year, helping Ferguson to organise the retrieval of the title from Arsenal, when Madrid called; it seemed indelicate to ask if he now wished he had not answered, for Queiroz left after 10 months having endured, with another newcomer by the name of David Beckham, the first season of what was to become a prolonged trophy drought ending only with Fabio Capello and last year's Liga celebrations.
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''Of course I knew Real Madrid coaches don't usually stay for more than two or three years," said Queiroz, ''but I felt it was my big opportunity and had a strong belief. I had long conversations with Alex who told me that, although it was a tough job, I could do it - the only thing I would have to be careful about was the politics. Anything inside the four lines I could handle. And I must say we played fantastic football, as people have been kind enough to acknowledge since."

Yet a late collapse let Valencia become champions under Rafa Benitez. ''I'm not making excuses," said Queiroz, ''but it was a bad time to be at the club, a time when the president [Florentino Perez] started to believe he knew something about football. They way they built the squad for that season was horribly mistaken. The policy was to surround the galacticos with players from the academy, the cantera, as much as possible. It was a great idea and could have worked - except that the cantera could not deliver its requirements. The young players were not there. On top of that, the club had let some of the best go the year before - like Samuel Eto'o. He was a Real Madrid player before he went to Barcelona and emerged as world-class. When the season started, I gave an interview to Marca and said that, although it was true Real Madrid was a Ferrari, you could not win a race if the car had no wheels. Sad to say, I was proved right.

''But really you could distil all the mistakes made by Real Madrid that summer into one word - Makelele. Selling Claude Makelele [to Chelsea, where he was to win successive English titles] was a criminal error, the president's worst decision. Makelele wanted to stay. He told me and he told Valdano. But, in the president's mind, releasing Makelele vacated a position in which David Beckham could play. He was worried that, with Makelele in the team, Beckham would be blocked out. But of course we could have had both. It was still a great experience. We were eight or nine points ahead of Valencia and everything started to go wrong. And, as they say in Spain, you eat the duck - I pay the bill."

As the day of reckoning approached, Queiroz kept in touch with Ferguson. ''He was a great friend. One day he rang to say I should do what's best for me and the team and not worry about anything else because there would always be a job for me in Manchester. That gave me strength. In life sometimes you need to be sure you can use three words - yes, maybe and no. Sometimes as coaches we only have yes and maybe. Alex's phone call helped me to keep my spine straight. So, although I was offered extremely well-paid jobs, one in England and the other in Spain, I didn't hesitate when he invited me back."

It has been a long journey that began in colonial Mozambique, where Queiroz grew up and played professionally. After independence he went to Lisbon and, upon realising his talent as a footballer would not enable him to live in the style to which he had been accustomed, attended the Portuguese capital's sports university - Jose Mourinho was also to go there - before working his way through the ranks at the Portuguese FA, where he brought about something of a revolution, raising the 'golden generation' of Luis Figo, Rui Costa, Paulo Sousa and Fernando Couto. He graduated with them to the senior national team.
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After Sporting Lisbon, New York's MetroStars and Grampus Eight in Japan, Queiroz returned to the international game with the United States and South Africa. And, for all the joy of training Ronaldo and the rest, this will not be his last job. ''I'm here on a mission to repay a debt to Alex," he said, ''but to be in charge - that's the reason everybody works. When it's the right time to make a decision, I'll do it."

How United beat Real to capture Ronaldo - Football News - Telegraph


Its a very interesting interview. He talks about his time at real madrid and ronaldo's transfer to united. Its a bit long but its worth reading.