Alan Shearer has revealed that Sir Bobby Robson enquired about signing him before Ronaldo arrived at FC Barcelona in 1996. Ronaldo scored 47 goals in 49 appearances during his solitary season at the Camp Nou as he went on to win the Ballon D'Or in 1997.
However, Robson later told Shearer when the pair teamed up at Newcastle, that he had wanted to sign him the same summer that he swapped Blackburn for the Magpies.
"Sir Bobby signed him [Ronaldo] at Barca, he tried to sign me before him," Shearer revealed to BBC Sport. "Bobby told me this story when he was manager of Newcastle.
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"He said, 'I came in for you first, and Blackburn told me you weren't for sale and then two or three weeks later you'd gone to Newcastle. But in the meantime, once they'd told me emphatically that you're not for sale, I went out and got young Ronaldo from PSV'. It worked out all right. He got the right one in the end."
Barcelona broke the world record transfer fee by paying £13.2 million to sign Ronaldo from PSV Eindhoven. But that record was soon surpassed when Shearer joined Newcastle for £15 million later that summer. Real Madrid and Manchester United had also been interested in signing Shearer but he instead joined his hometown club.
Shearer spent the rest of his career at St James' Park - scoring a club record 206 goals in 405 appearances for the Magpies. He remains the Premier League all-time leading goal scorer with 260 goals and finished his career in 2006 with 409 goals in total for club and country.
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