Real Madrid Star Cristiano Ronaldo Almost Joined Juventus in 2003 Before Swap Deal 'Collapsed'

Alessandro Moggi, the son of Juventus' former general director Luciano, has claimed that Juventus were within a hair's breadth of signing superstar Cristiano Ronaldo in 2003. 

In an interview with Tuttosport, Moggi claimed that during his time working as a football agent, Juventus came close to signing Ronaldo, who at the time played for Portuguese side Sporting Lisbon. Discussing the failed deal, Moggi stated:

"Ronaldo was offered to Parma and Lazio but they rejected a chance to sign him. Juventus wanted to sign him and I travelled to Lisbon with Jorge Mendes.

"The idea was to make a swap deal with Marcelo Salas as Juventus wanted to sell him. Trouble is, Portuguese football wasn’t too interesting at the time and we didn’t manage to persuade Salas to move to Portugal. Contracts and papers were ready, Ronaldo was happy because in that moment Juventus were one of the best teams in Europe.

"That day we could have changed the history of European football, maybe Ronaldo could have still been a Juventus player. This is not my biggest regret, however, as Ronaldinho came also close to joining Juve in the past.”

Ronaldo ended up joining Man Utd, and the rest is history. After winning three back-to-back Premier League titles and a Champions League, the Portuguese ace joined Real Madrid in 2009, where he has gone on to become arguably the best player in the world. Moving to a more central position, the talismanic forward has scored 405 goals in 413 games for Los Blancos.