Brazilian midfielder Marcos Senna has revealed he could’ve signed for Manchester United at the prime of his career.
The former Villarreal player had a chat with Omnisport this week, and recalled the time he received an offer from the Red Devils.
“I was very close to signing for Manchester United. It was a time for me of a lot… I had a lot of doubts. A time when my wife was pregnant with our first child. We had an excellent adaptation here. Manchester had asked me for [a response in] two weeks,” Marcos Senna told Omnisport (via Record).
“And here we were making a great team. We signed Robert Pires, Nihat Kahveci, Giuseppe Rossi, we had a great team. I would honestly be delighted to play for Manchester United at that time, but I also wanted to stay. Coming from a Champions League semifinal with Villarreal, Villarreal were signing great players. And I was half to half, to be honest. Until I spoke to Pellegrini and at the end I signed for three more years here, and I stayed for the rest of my career in Spain, at Villarreal, fortunately.”
Marcos Senna signed for Villarreal in a €600k deal from São Caetano back in 2002, and ended up making 356 appearances for the Spanish side.
Following this offer from Manchester United, Villarreal played the Red Devils four times for the Champions League in the coming years, with Marcos Senna starting in three of them. Curiously, all four matches ended with 0-0 draws.
Despite being born in São Paulo, Senna made 28 appearances for Spain, having featured in the 2006 World Cup and being part of the squad which won the Euros in 2008.
