Ferguson admits Ronaldo return unlikely

Nov 19, 2012 |

London

Tags:

Cristiano Ronaldo_1.jpg.crop_display.jpg

Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson has admitted he would be happy for Cristiano Ronaldo to return to the club but believes the Portuguese forward is now "unbuyable".

Ronaldo spent six successful years at Old Trafford, notably winning the Champions League in 2008, before leaving for Real Madrid in a world-record 80 million ($131.6 million, 93.9 million euros) transfer in 2009.

Widely regarded as one of the two best players in the world, alongside Barcelona's Lionel Messi, Ronaldo remains a popular figure at United, but Ferguson concedes it is unlikely the 27-year-old will ever return.

Ferguson was asked by a number of British newspapers if the door would always be open for Ronaldo, and he replied: "I'd like to think it would be, but I don't think it will happen.

"You're talking about incredible amounts of money now. What would you think his value would be? He's definitely unbuyable.

"Who could afford to buy him? There's talk of the Russians, perhaps. But do you think he would go to Russia? He complained about the weather here (in Manchester), let alone the middle of winter in Russia.

"He was definitely good value for Madrid but he always wanted to play for them. It was his boyhood dream."

Post new comment

<form action="/comment/reply/203778" accept-charset="UTF-8" method="post" id="comment-form"> <div><div class="form-item" id="edit-name-wrapper"> <label for="edit-name">Your name: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="60" name="name" id="edit-name" size="30" value="Reader" class="form-text required" /> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-mail-wrapper"> <label for="edit-mail">E-Mail Address: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <input type="text" maxlength="64" name="mail" id="edit-mail" size="30" value="" class="form-text required" /> <div class="description">The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.</div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-comment-wrapper"> <label for="edit-comment">Comment: <span class="form-required" title="This field is required.">*</span></label> <textarea cols="60" rows="15" name="comment" id="edit-comment" class="form-textarea resizable required"></textarea> </div> <fieldset class=" collapsible collapsed"><legend>Input format</legend><div class="form-item" id="edit-format-1-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-1"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-1" name="format" value="1" class="form-radio" /> Filtered HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Allowed HTML tags: <a> <em> <strong> <cite> <code> <ul> <ol> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd></li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> <div class="form-item" id="edit-format-2-wrapper"> <label class="option" for="edit-format-2"><input type="radio" id="edit-format-2" name="format" value="2" checked="checked" class="form-radio" /> Full HTML</label> <div class="description"><ul class="tips"><li>Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.</li><li>Lines and paragraphs break automatically.</li></ul></div> </div> </fieldset> <input type="hidden" name="form_build_id" id="form-664876692ea7d8a0897bfb0d89bb6e0f" value="form-664876692ea7d8a0897bfb0d89bb6e0f" /> <input type="hidden" name="form_id" id="edit-comment-form" value="comment_form" /> <fieldset class="captcha"><legend>CAPTCHA</legend><div class="description">This question is for testing whether you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.</div><input type="hidden" name="captcha_sid" id="edit-captcha-sid" value="85378763" /> <input type="hidden" name="captcha_response" id="edit-captcha-response" value="NLPCaptcha" /> <div class="form-item"> <div id="nlpcaptcha_ajax_api_container"><script type="text/javascript"> var NLPOptions = {key:'c4823cf77a2526b0fba265e2af75c1b5'};</script><script type="text/javascript" src="http://call.nlpcaptcha.in/js/captcha.js" ></script></div> </div> </fieldset> <span class="btn-left"><span class="btn-right"><input type="submit" name="op" id="edit-submit" value="Save" class="form-submit" /></span></span> </div></form>