The current chairman of Tottenham Hotspur Daniel Levy had a chance to scout Cristiano Ronaldo way before others. His own scouts had recommended the club target the Portuguese star during the time he was playing for Sporting CP.
But the entire incident turned out to be a glorious chance missed for Daniel Levy as he ignored the scouting reports and didn’t pay much attention to the rising superstar.
Former Tottenham striker Ronny Rosenthal had joined the club scouting group after retiring in 2002. He had traveled to Portugal and was particularly keen on watching Cristiano Ronaldo. He was so impressed by the young lad that he had suggested his name to Levy.
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But they were so slow to act that after a year, Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United swiftly signed the young Sporting star and the rest is history.
During a recent interview with The Athletic, Ronny Rosenthal has revealed how the entire Ronaldo incident currently gives Daniel Levy nightmares due to his negligence in signing him.
He said:
” Cristiano Ronaldo, for example. I had transferred a player to Newcastle — Hugo Viana — and I was scouting Sporting Lisbon in Portugal. That’s how I discovered Cristiano Ronaldo. I’m always ahead in terms of understanding who will reach a certain level and automatically certain value. Ronaldo made his debut for Sporting Lisbon in August 2002, and I started watching him a month or so after that. I recommended him to Arsenal, Tottenham, and others. But they didn’t follow it up.”
However, 12 months after this incident, Manchester United acted swiftly to bring him to Old Trafford. They signed him for approx £12m which currently looks like the bargain of the century.
Since then, Ronaldo has gone on to become one of the best players in the game’s history, scoring 692 goals and assisting 231 times in 927 appearances for the likes of Sporting, United, Real Madrid, and Juventus – with 14 goals and six assists against Spurs, the most he has scored against any English side.
Furthermore, the 37-year-old – who has been sold for a total of £204.2 million during his career – has a record 115 goals in 186 appearances for Portugal, making him the country’s all-time leading goalscorer as well as the player with the most goals in the sport’s history.
We believe that Daniel Levy would be thinking a lot about this mistake now, as many players like the Legendary Eusebio had claimed Ronaldo to be having magic in his boots during his Sporting days.
In the end, someone’s loss is someone’s gain.
