Real Madrid idol Cristiano Ronaldo revealed he could have signed for FC Barcelona early on in his … [+]
Real Madrid idol Cristiano Ronaldo revealed he could have signed for FC Barcelona early on in his career and also stated that he enjoyed scoring more at Camp Nou than the Bernabeu during an interview with Edu Aguirre.
The Portuguese began his soccer journey at Sporting CP in Lisbon. And while we now know that his first employer outside Spain’s regional neighbour was Manchester United in the Premier League, the current Al-Nassr star revealed that the Catalans came in for him.
“It was a phase that was in Sporting and I was able to play for several clubs, one of them was Barca. A person spoke to me and approached me to hire me. But it didn’t happen,” revealed Ronaldo.
“I was able to sign for Barca,” he clearly stated, before pondering why the move – which would’ve seen him do a Sporting-Blaugrana switch and follow in the steps of Luis Figo – never came off.
“Maybe they wanted to take me the following year and Manchester United took me that minute. That’s how fate is,” Ronaldo offered.
After a spell at Old Trafford where he won his first Ballon d’Or, Ronaldo of course left for Madrid in 2009 when Florentino Perez smashed the world transfer record to bring him to the Spanish capital.
What followed was one of soccer history’s greatest rivalries with Ronaldo on one side of the ball and Lionel Messi on the other for the Catalans.
Installments of El Clasico between the two behemoths and their clubs were particularly mouthwatering, and Ronaldo reminisced by saying that he liked to score goals at Camp Nou.
“I was on top. They whistled at me, but I didn’t care about the insults, I only thought about scoring and silencing those people.
“I liked scoring goals more at the Camp Nou than at the Bernabeu,” Ronaldo teased, with a quote that will no doubt amuse Los Blancos aficionados but perhaps get under the skin of Culers.
These quotes come after Ronaldo gave advice to a Madrid star that idolizes him in Kylian Mbappe, who he told the club and its fans to take care while the Frenchman “doesn’t know how to play as a striker”.
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