According to former president Joan Laporta, Barcelona had the opportunity to bring Cristiano Ronaldo to Nou Camp in the summer of 2003. However, financial constraints at that time prevented the two superstars Messi-C.Ronaldo from having the chance to play together.

There is no doubt that Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are two attacking superstars that every team dreams of. Suppose if they were to play together in the same shirt, the attacking power of this duo would be terrifying.

 

Barca once had the chance to buy C.Ronaldo at a cheap price.

 

And that prospect could have come true if Barca had really set their mind to owning the Portuguese superstar since he was still playing for Sporting Lisbon. That was the summer of 2003, when CR7’s representative and famous agent Jorge Mendes raised the issue with Barca but in the end, Los Blaugrana, having recruited a few attacking stars before, were not interested in Ronaldo.

This information was revealed by former president Joan Laporta on Onda Cero : “Mendes once mentioned to us about Cristiano Ronaldo when he was still under contract with Sporting. We worked with Mendes quite a lot after that.Barca could have owned Ronaldo for a lower price than what MU had to pay to buy him (12.4 million pounds). However, because we had just recruited Ronaldinho, Ricardo Quaresma and Rafael Marquez, Barcelona lacked the financial resources to continue buying other new players.”

As Barca (along with Arsenal) withdrew one after another, MU successfully brought C. Ronaldo to Old Trafford, and then 6 years later, the “Red Devils” sold this striker to Real Madrid for 80 million pounds. Also arriving at Bernabeu in 2009 with CR7 was Kaka, a player that Barcelona had also considered bringing to the Nou Camp.

“We had dinner with AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi and he proposed a player exchange involving Ronaldinho and Kaka,” Laporta said. “However, that was not an option for Barca, even though Ronaldinho was an important player for the club.”