He is a legend at Manchester United and a Real Madrid icon. But Cristiano Ronaldo could have turned out for La Liga club Malaga even before playing for the former two football giants had the Segunda Division club dished out 2 million euros (€2m) more in 2002-03. Ronaldo, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner and one of the greatest players of all-time, was spotted by Malaga scouts during his time at the Sporting Club de Portugal academy. As revealed by Malaga’s recruitment head of that time, Carlos Rincon, Ronaldo had already shown attributes of becoming a football great at such a young age and Malaga wanted to bring him at Lo Rosaleda but fell €2m short in their valuation of the Portuguese before his eventual transfer to Manchester United. Juventus Coach Maurizio Sarri Responds to Speculations of Cristiano Ronaldo Linking Up With Lionel Messi.

According to a report from Goal.com, Rincon and his team of scouts had first noticed Ronaldo during the 2002 Under-17 European Championship in Denmark and started scouting him after being impressed on first glimpse. “Cristiano was what he is now as a young man,” Rincon was quoted as saying by Goal to El Desmarque. “A player with a very important physical power, with a spectacular strike of the ball."

“I was told to go to the big events in Europe, America or South Africa. I had to get the phone numbers of the three best players in the tournaments. As soon as the championship ended I had the phone number of the three best players. I was then following them on television.

“The following week we established contact with players and families to meet their agents and see if we could make an offer. Within that situation was Ronaldo,” he added. Ronaldo was still part of the Sporting academy and played for their youth teams during that period but rumours of being already attracted by some powerhouses in Europe had started doing the rounds.

“He had not yet debuted in the first team of Sporting in Lisbon, and we made an offer through Jorge Mendes. We had established money, we could not make overexertion in investments. At that time we made an offer of €1.5m and the player was worth about €3.5m,” Rincon said.

But with demand for Ronaldo’s signature increasing in the market and super clubs such as Manchester United, Barcelona and Arsenal ready to pounce on the talented Portuguese, Sporting refused to lower their valuation of Ronaldo and Malaga couldn’t offer more. “We could not move on because we couldn't reach that amount. In the end, good players are not expensive, but we couldn't get there,” recalled Rincon as he reveals how Malaga gave up on one of the biggest coups of all-time.

Ronaldo, even at that early age had the same attributes that he possesses today. Ronaldo was skilled with the same pace, power shot and physical strength that has turned him into a goal-scoring monster today. “He already has his primary qualities at that age, they already have them, then they develop or improve tactically,” says Rincon. “Cristiano was what he is now when he was young. A player with a very important physical power, with a spectacular shot, very intuitive in his way of understanding the game with a technical quality with the ball at the level of dribbling and spectacular driving. It does not surprise me what he is demonstrating at his age, those qualities have always had them."

But despite seeing and being one of the first to scout the Portuguese sensation, Malaga failed in their attempt to capture him. “We acted very fast. A month or two passed and he immediately debuted with the first team and Manchester United arrived quickly. Jorge has many elite-level relationships, at that time we could no longer compete,” Rincon regrets. “[Alex] Ferguson, his sporting father, became infatuated after a friendly and deposited €18m months after Malaga became interested. It was the best option at that time."

Ronaldo has since gone on to make close to 900 club appearances for United, Real Madrid and Juventus winning league titles in all three clubs while also leading the former two Champions League glories. He has scored 624 goals so far and recently became the only player in history to score in 11 successive matches in two different leagues.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Feb 13, 2020 12:26 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).