Everton opted against signing a 17-year-old Cristiano Ronaldo in 2002.
That is according to a new book called Messi vs Ronaldo, which claims the Portuguese superstar was offered to the Blues for just £2m.
The Toffees were one of several European clubs said to have had the chance to sign Ronaldo during his breakthrough at Sporting Lisbon but decided against taking a risk on an 'untested' youngster when they had their own star - Wayne Rooney - coming into the first-team picture.
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Ronaldo spent one more season with his boyhood club in Portugal before joining Manchester United and embarking on one of the most successful careers in sporting history. Alex Ferguson had been scouting the teenager for some time, deciding to sign him almost on the spot following an excellent performance in a friendly against his Red Devils side during the summer of 2003.
Everton and David Moyes instead decided to put their time and focus in a young and raw Rooney, with the boyhood Blue making his mark through the youth teams and catching Moyes' eye for his role in getting to the FA Youth Cup final in 2002. The then 16-year-old was promoted to first-team football that summer, making his Premier League debut with that winner against Arsenal.
Speaking to the Independent back in October on the 10-year anniversary of that stunning goal, Moyes recalled his early impressions of a young Rooney and what he remembers from the game against Arsenal.
“Walter Smith told me a bit about the squad and then said, ‘by the way, there’s a boy in the academy who’s a really good player, his name is Wayne Rooney’,” Moyes explained. “It’s one of those statements – everybody says they’ve got a good player in the academy. Will I ever see him? You never know. But that’s when he was first brought to my attention.
“Then there was the semi-final of the FA Youth Cup, he played and I watched him and thought, ‘wow’. I remember after that game I walked down, tapped him on the shoulder and said, ‘look, you’ll be with me soon’.
“My biggest memory now is the commentary from the game: ‘Remember the name’. At that time in the dressing rooms at Goodison you could hear the supporters all the way down the corridor and we could hear them singing the whole way down. It was such a big moment for them – an Evertonian, one of them – it became a really big thing.
“At that time in my managerial career I wasn’t one for giving out big compliments – I probably said, ‘good goal’ to him at the end of it. But obviously I knew what it meant.”
But the Croxteth-born star spent only two seasons on Merseyside, leaving to join Ronaldo at Old Trafford for just over £33m. The pair would go on to form one of the deadliest attacking partnerships in Premier League history, winning three Premier League titles and the Champions league - no doubt leaving those at Goodison thinking what could have been.
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