There aren't a lot of 'what might've been' when it comes to Cristiano Ronaldo's career.
The Manchester United superstar has won five Ballons d'Or, five Champions League winner's medals, seven top-flight league titles and broken countless illustrations records. But before the talent became the legend, even before the boy became the man, Ronaldo could've taken a very different career path.
Not a different job altogether, though - not even in a different country - as Arsenal were infamously on the verge of signing the for the highly-rated Sporting CP academy product just "days" before United swooped in. During his 22-year reign as Gunners boss, Arsene Wenger had some of the most high-profile transfer misses in football history, having come close to signing a plethora of big-name players such as Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, N'Golo Kante, Gianluigi Buffon, Paul Pogba and Kylian Mbappe.
But to this day, Ronaldo - now in his second spell with the Red Devils - stands tall as his biggest regret, with his failed transfer a well-told tale.
In a conversation with Arsenal icon Ian Wright for LADbible TV, someone Wenger was fortunate enough to tie down, the Frenchman revealed how agonisingly close the Portuguese prodigy was to jetting off en route to north London. "We thought it was possible," Wenger lamented. "If we had been a fraction quicker, a few days because we had agreed and then Manchester United came in 5 or 6 days later."
Having discussed the clanger on plenty of other occasions, the 72-year-old elaborated when speaking to FourFourTwo by saying: "When I had Thierry, I could have signed [Cristiano] Ronaldo – can you imagine what they could have done together? That makes you sweat a little bit, and I was very close to doing it. I thought it was all done."
"It was that close [holding his index finger and thumb within a millimetre of each other]. But I would say that every club could tell you stories like that." In what eventually became commonplace the Premier League era of old, Sir Alex Ferguson got one over on his old adversary.
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While Wenger lived to regret the failure, Ronaldo made Arsenal pay; scoring eight goals in 16 appearances against the Gunners, two of those coming in their meeting earlier this season. The strikes took him to a mind-boggling 801 for his entire career, as United won 3-2.
But a memorable free-kick in the team's 2009 Champions League semi-final clash is widely considered one of his best. Wheeling away in celebration in front of the Emirates faithful, much of the crowd were oblivious to the fact that they could've been enjoying his brilliance themselves.
What's the 37-year-old's take on the story, though? In an interview with Portuguese television channel TVI three years ago, Ronaldo revealed: "(At Sporting) there had been contacts with so many other teams, Valencia, for example, were one of them. I met with Arsene Wenger and was about to go to Arsenal.
"I talked to Barcelona, Real Madrid and Inter Milan too but after the friendly against Manchester United, who were already interested, they became even more interested, sped up negotiations and signed me."
Going on to become arguably the greatest footballer of all-time, the rest is truly history.
