The 73 year-old claims he pursued ‘Il Fenomeno’ when he was starting out his career back in Brazil in 2004, but was hampered by work permit issues and could not conclude the deal.
“We wanted to sign the Brazilian striker from Cruzeiro in 1994, but we could not get a work permit and he went to PSV Eindhoven in the Netherlands,” he said, as reported by MailOnline.
Ronaldo would go on to star at PSV, before moving to Barcelona, then Internazionale and Real Madrid.
His final stop in Europe was a stint at Milan, with his career coming to an end after returning to Brazil with Corinthians.
The possibility of having Ronaldo at Manchester United would have been an interesting scenario.
In 1994, very few players from South America had arrived in England and Ronaldo would have been at the start of his career.
Whether he would have bettered his return of two World Cup wins, two Ballon d’Or’s and countless club honours is unclear, but it would have been fascinating to see how Ferguson chose to develop what at the time was just simply a promising young forward.
