Sir Alex Ferguson was 'obsessed' with Real Madrid and tried to block Cristiano Ronaldo move

Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has told IBTimes UK that former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson tried to block Cristiano Ronaldo's move to the Santiago Bernabeu due to his obsession with the La Liga giants.

Calderon resigned as president of Real Madrid in January 2009, while Ronaldo left Old Trafford for the Bernabeu in the summer of that year.

But the president told IBTimes UK that he was the one who made the deal a reality, not current president Florentino Perez, as the £80m ($121m) agreement that saw Ronaldo joining Madrid was reached in 2008.

And Calderon claimed that during that whole year, Ferguson made every effort to stop the Portuguese moving to Real Madrid due to his obsession with Los Blancos and even offered Barcelona the chance to sign him instead.

"We agreed his signing after two years of negotiations. He was signed on 12 December 2008, just one month before my departure," Calderon said.

"It was hard because United didn't want him to leave. I spoke several times with David Gill, who was then one of United officials and whom I still keep a strong relationship. Ferguson did not want him to leave but they had to accept that the player wanted to go.

"He was indeed going to come the year before but I remember Ronaldo had a press conference to say that he was going to stay at Old Trafford instead.

"Ronaldo then called me to say that he will come the following year. He told me that he had a commitment with Ferguson and with the United supporters to stay one more year but that he had agreed with the club to move the following summer. And so it happened. He agreed with United to let him go to Real Madrid for £80m and so was signed the following year.

"But during that year Ferguson tried to block the deal. Ferguson has always had an obsession with Real Madrid because they know we were the club that overshadowed them. So he tried to block Ronaldo's move to Real Madrid by offering him to Barcelona. Barcelona welcomed the news but the player insisted he just wanted to go to Real Madrid."

Ronaldo's move to Madrid almost never happened

Meanwhile, Calderon also said Perez was close to breaking the Ronaldo agreement because he thought £80m was too much.

Calderon said: "We signed Ronaldo because we thought that an attack with him and Arjen Robben would be hard to match. But Florentino Perez parted ways with Robben and Sneijder and even considered breaking Ronaldo's agreement. It was ironic because in Perez's first year in charge, Robben and Sneijder [both signed by Ramon Calderon] reached the Champions League final between Bayern Munich and Inter Milan.

"But at least Perez accepted the signing of Ronaldo. He didn't want to ratify the agreement because it was not reached by him. He said he was too expensive and that with £80m he could buy other players.

"Thanks God [then sporting director] Jorge Valdano and [director] Jose Angel Sanchez told him to ratify the deal. After that things have not gone bad for him. He is not a man of football but an entrepreneur but has done not bad at all."

Even though Ronaldo is still thriving in La Liga, there has been a lot of speculation about his intentions to return to Old Trafford one day. Questioned about that, Calderon said: "I don't know and I think either the player is yet to make the decision.

"His spell at Real Madrid is being great but he may decide to move away in the future either to return to the Premier League or even to go to Portugal, his homeland. But it is early to say it because surely he has not made the decision yet."