Ronaldo deal sees Man U outflank City, mollify fans

Manchester: As the transfer talk heated up, the prospect of seeing Cristiano Ronaldo in a Manchester City jersey increasingly dismayed greats from the red half of town — particularly Rio Ferdinand. How could the player he won three Premier League titles and the Champions League with at Manchester United contemplate returning to the Premier League with their greatest rival? I rang him straight away," Ferdinand said.

"What's going on? Tell me you're lying." By that point Ronaldo's agent, Jorge Mendes, had already told Juventus on Thursday the five-time world player of the year wanted out of the final season of his contract. His destination, publicly at least, and not disputed by City, looked like being the blue half of Manchester.

Signing one of the greatest players of all time — especially a United legend — would have been the perfect way for City to end a difficult week. Its long-running pursuit of Harry Kane had spectacularly collapsed when it realized Tottenham wouldn't sell the striker who was the Premier League's top scorer last season for even 100 million pounds ($138 million).

The back pages of Friday's newspapers teased the sensational possibility of the 36-year-old Ronaldo filling the void up front for Pep Guardiola's Premier League champions. But by Friday lunchtime, Guardiola publicly accepted: "Right now it looks far, far, away

A deal was far away. But Ronaldo soon won't be physically far away from City after United acted swiftly to pull off the transfer coup. Once Ronaldo's availability emerged — which hadn't seemed an option at the start of the week — United's hierarchy made clear to Mendes it wanted to bring the Portuguese back to Old Trafford, 12 years after he was sold to Real Madrid.

The emotional pull with the club that signed him at age 18 in 2003 — and provided the platform for him to become a soccer superstar — proved stronger than playing for a City side that has usurped United to become England's dominant force.

Ronaldo listened to the pleas of Ferdinand and surely other figures linked to United. United struck a deal on Friday afternoon to pay Juventus 15 million euros (around $18 million), with 8 million euros ($9 million) in add-ons, with only personal terms to be resolved along with contractual and visa formalities.

"When there is an opportunity for him to come and continue his legacy, continue his history with this football club," Ferdinand posted in an online video, "if Man United had let that slip through their fingers and he had gone across the city to the other side, you would have had to have had security 24/7, around the clock at the stadium, let alone the houses of some of the people involved."