Sridhar Bhamidi
We’d have heard of a lot of transfer stories that never happened but were close to happening. This one is quite interesting though! It looks like the legendary Sir Alex Ferguson rejected the chance to sign Bayern Munich superstar Franck Ribery back in 2006 after watching him for only 45 minutes, according to latest revelations by Alastair Campbell.
Campbell, who is Tony Blair’s former communications chief, is all set to publish the latest set of diaries and the revelation is one of a number of such claims made. Interestingly, Campbell is a close friend of the former Old Trafford Chief and is known to have been very close to Sir Alex.
According to The Sunday Times (h/t Sky Sports), Campbell was with Ferguson in February 2006 who was running a rule over Ribery. The French winger was then playing for Marseille and faced Bolton Wanderers in the UEFA Cup.
The then 22-year-old, who was about to be named as French Ligue1’s ‘Young Player of the Year’ that season, did not impress the Red Devils gaffer. Campbell claims that Sir Alex did not take too long to make his mind up about the youngster.
Campbell wrote: “Alex was watching Franck Ribery, the Marseille winger, but decided by half-time he was not good enough for United.”
It proved to be a mistake as Ribery went on to make a huge name for himself in the world football. The Frenchman spent just one more season with Marseille and secured a move to Bayern Munich in the summer of 2007.
Ribery has an array of titles to his name during his time with Bayern, having won 7 Bundesliga titles and was also a part of the 2012-13 Champions League winning side.
Sir Alex is revered not just for his monumental record at Old Trafford but also for his keen eye to spot talent. There are cases though, of players who have been discarded by the renowned tactician, only to have great careers elsewhere.
Ribery is just one of those rare exceptions and we can say with conviction that Sir Alex’s eye for talent is unblotted. Campbell’s diaries also include further revelations about Sir Alex’s relationship with his captain Roy Keane.
Looks like Campbell’s might be one hell of a read for us all!
