Ole Gunnar Solskjaer confirms Manchester United deliberately blocked Manchester City and superstar signing | OneFootball

Former Manchester United boss Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed the Old Trafford club deliberately blocked Manchester City from signing Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021.

The four-time successive Premier League champions were heavily linked with the signing of the Portuguese international footballing legend during a summer transfer window when there was a clear need to recruit a new leading striker.

Pep Guardiola and his Manchester City colleagues were consistently linked with the signing of Harry Kane from Tottenham Hotspur, but were ultimately priced out of a deal by chairman Daniel Levy and his insistence on a price tag north of £130 million.

As such, the club were forced to turn to other options and the opportunity to recruit Ronaldo in light of an exit from Juventus perked their interest, only for Manchester United to prevent the Etihad Stadium club from taking their iconic former number 7.

Speaking at the Oslo Business Forum, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has revealed that by preventing City from signing Cristiano Ronaldo in 2021, the Etihad Stadium club were denied a player who would have scored more goals than Erling Haaland at present.

The now-former Manchester United manager explained in recent days, “Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the best players in the world the last 15 years. I played with him. He played for Manchester United.

“He has history with the club and he’s leaving Juventus but we can not give him to Manchester City because he will score more goals than Erling Haaland is doing at the moment probably.”

He continued, as relayed by newspaper MailSport, “So I speak to Cristiano. We get him to Man United but I think maybe that affected the whole dressing room, the dynamic in the dressing room.

“Maybe other players felt less important because of course this is one of the world superstars that comes in. He did well. He was top scorer that year, scored 24 goals or something, but i was out of the job 10 weeks later!”

Ultimately, it would be Manchester City who arguably came out on top in the entire situation, having won the race to sign Borussia Dortmund and Norway international Erling Haaland under 12 months later.

The 24-year-old has now won almost every trophy available to win whilst starring for Manchester City, scoring 100 goals in his 106 appearances so far under Pep Guardiola and playing a major role in two Premier League titles and a UEFA Champions League crown.