Massimiliano Mirabelli has once again stressed how close AC Milan came to signing Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018.
It is not the first time that Mirabelli has gone on record making bold claims about his time as a director at Milan under Yonghong Li’s ownership, alongside Marco Fassone. He has previously claimed that Ronaldo was all set to arrive before a late stall saw the deal collapse.
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Mirabelli: Ronaldo was close
Speaking in an interview published on Friday, Mirabelli revealed that a first approach was made at the Champions League final in Cardiff between Juventus and Real Madrid. Milan representatives met with agent Jorge Mendes and doors quickly opened for them.
“We put together this proposal, this idea, and Cristiano found it very fascinating. When we spoke, myself, Fassone and also Gattuso, he said: ‘I’ll come to Milan. I’ve never done the Europa League and I’m coming to win it’,” Mirabelli said (via Goal).
“He had built up an important motivation, he didn’t diminish the fact that he wasn’t coming to do the Champions League. He wanted to win the Europa League. He was very motivated.
“We had reached all the agreements, with Real Madrid, with Jorge Mendes regarding the player. It was all okay. But then it didn’t go through. The Chinese pulled back.”
The rest, as they say, is history. Ronaldo would in fact eventually end up in Italy but with Juventus, where he had a good scoring record but failed to end their Champions League drought. The Chinese era at Milan, meanwhile, would not be remembered that fondly.
What a mistake that was for Juve.
He scored 100 goals for them.
Their misstake was not having good enough players on other position.
He did, but at what cost? Juve is still reeling financially from that deal.