Juan Román Riquelme has detailed the crazy five minutes in which Manchester United tried to sign him.
TyC Sports cover comments from the iconic Argentine midfielder today and how he nearly ended up at Manchester United at one point.
Riquelme is now the president of Boca Juniors after bringing his playing career to an end in 2015 after spells with Boca Juniors, Barcelona, Villarreal, Boca Juniors again and then Argentinos Juniors.
He stepped up a higher role in 2019, first becoming vice president at Boca Juniors before then being voted in as president in 2023.
While his focus is on that, his playing career remains fondly remembered by all who watched him, with some even believing he was the last of the true number tens.
His career never took him to the Premier League, but he was regularly linked with a move there, with various clubs down the years credited with an interest but never making it anything concrete.
That was nearly very different, though, as he reveals there was a mad five-minute period in which Manchester United, and Sir Alex Ferguson, nearly got him.
“We played the semifinal with Arsenal in England and he (Ferguson) was at the hotel,” he said.
“He spoke with the president of Villarreal and there was Daniel (Bolotnicoff), who is my representative. He was there because he had gone to buy me. They finished the meeting and Dani says to me: ‘He wants to say hello.’
“He came to buy. Then I say to him: ‘What did you tell him?’ And there he answers: ‘The sports city, El Madrigal (stadium), is for sale… everything is for sale, except Riquelme.
“There I told my representative: ‘Tell Ferguson that I will never forget these five minutes in my life again, but that if the president doesn’t want to sell me, I’ll stay in Villarreal.’ So, I greeted him and I went to have a mate.
“Then we had to go play the Audi Cup with Boca in Germany and he went to the press conference. He said that It had been true that he wanted to buy me and that every time they go to buy a Manchester United player, they want them to respond like me.”
