All revealed in his new book. Sir Alex explained how he convinced Ronaldo to stay and how he finally sold him.
"Madrid paid £80 million in cash for him, and do you know why? It was a way for Florentino Perez, their president, to say to the world, ‘We are Real Madrid, we are the biggest of the lot'.
"When the possibility of him leaving edged towards being a probability, I reached a gentleman’s agreement with him.
"I went to Carlos’s house in Portugal to find the boy expressing an urge to go to Real Madrid, and told him: 'You can’t go this year, not after the way Calderon has approached the issue'.
"I said, ‘I know you want to go to Real Madrid. But I’d rather shoot you than sell you to that guy now. If you perform, don’t mess us about, and someone comes and offers a world record fee, then we will let you go.’
"I did well to calm him down. I told him that the reason I was refusing to sell him that year was because of Calderon. I said, ‘If I do that, all my honour’s gone, everything’s gone for me, and I don’t care if you have to sit in the stands. I know it won’t come to that, but I just have to tell you I will not let you leave this year'."
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