Legendary Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson signed Cristiano Ronaldo whilst playing golf, but his opponent thought it was the Brazilian forward not the Portuguese wonderkid.
Fergie was playing a round with Scots snooker hero Stephen Hendry at the iconic Gleneagles course back in 2003, when he completed a deal for the Sporting Lisbon winger – who would go on to become one of the greatest players of all-time – over the phone. However seven-time world champion Hendry said he got the wrong end of the stick when he heard the name, and was texting United supporting pals to break the news that they had signed the Real Madrid goal machine.
Speaking on his Snooker Club podcast with Mark Watson and former United goalkeeper Ben Foster, the King of the Crucible was asked about meetings he’d had with Fergie – and revealed he was with him as he made one of his greatest-ever signings. Even if it left supporters underwhelmed at the time. Hendry explained: “I’ve played golf with him once, it was at Gleneagles and he was on the phone the whole time. My friend had asked me to play with him, and he’d asked him what he was doing on the phone. He said he was doing a deal, we’re signing Ronaldo.
“I thought, oh my God Man Utd are signing Ronaldo. Brazilian Ronaldo. I texted all my mates who were Man Utd fans saying ‘you’ll never guess what, Man Utd are signing Ronaldo’. It turned out it was Cristiano Ronaldo.” The deal proved to be one of the most successful in Fergie’s managerial career, with the scrawny Portuguese youngster going on to become one of United’s all-time greats – scoring over 130 goals and helping the club to three Premier League titles and the Champions League before an £80million move to Real Madrid where he took the number nine jersey previously worn by his Brazilian namesake.
It wasn’t the only time Hendry and Fergie had met either, with the snooker hero revealing he was too intimidated to say hello to Ferguson during an Old Firm. He continued: “I sat next to him at an Old Firm game once, I was in the directors’ box and had a friend of mine who was always in there. He came in, he walked past me and I was too embarrassed to say anything. He squeezed past me and sat down.
“About 20 minutes into the game he turned round, looked at me and went ‘Oh Stephen!” And asked me how I was doing. He was so into the game he hadn’t even noticed me!”