Former Man United CEO explains why the club failed to sign Ronaldinho in 2003

Former Manchester United CEO Peter Kenyon explained why the club was unable to sign star Brazilian Ronaldinho in 2003.

The "Red Devils" were highly interested in acquiring Ronaldinho in 2003, viewing him as a replacement for David Beckham, who had transferred to Real Madrid. However, the deal ultimately fell through.

• Legendary Ronaldinho has become co-owner of an American football club

The former Manchester United executive shared all the details of the failed transfer on Rio Ferdinand's podcast.

Quote: "We really chased him hard. We were keeping a very close eye on him.

Alex [Ferguson] was involved in everything. Critical decisions were made about why he would want to see him, where he would want to see him play, etc. So, Alex was involved in the potential transfer all along.

Usually, in such cases, you deal only with the player and his agent. Here, we were dealing with the player, several agents, and about 20 other people. He’s a fantastic player, but suddenly we found ourselves in a completely awkward position.

It became more of an issue than just the money. We seemed to have reached an agreement with the club, reached an agreement with the player, but then we went back and said, 'Overall, I don’t think this will work. David just left, and part of that noise was related to the environment.'

After missing out on Ronaldinho, United signed Cristiano Ronaldo instead, winning three consecutive titles with the Portuguese winger from 2007 to 2009. This led Kenyon to joke, 'It didn't turn out so badly, did it?'.

Recall: In 2003 Ronaldinho moved to Barcelona, in which he won the Ballon d'Or in 2005.