Rangers made a serious bid to sign Ronaldo from Barcelona in a world record £40m deal back in 1997.
It seems hard to believe in a week when Rangers were knocked out of Europa League qualifying in the first round by Luxembourg part-timers Progres Niederkorn, but 20 years ago this summer they almost signed the best player in the world.
In 1997, Ronaldo had just won both the FIFA World Player of the Year and Ballon d’Or awards after an astonishing season with Barcelona in which the Brazilian scored 47 goals in 51 games.
Ronaldo Zidane
Such was the power of Gers and the Scottish Premiership then, that the Glasgow club genuinely thought bringing the striker to Ibrox was a realistic proposition.
Former owner, Sir David Murray, told the Scotsman that the club made a then world record £40m bid to sign Ronaldo in a move that would have changed football history starkly.
“For years people have thought I have been talking rubbish about where this club was going, but this shows we are now talking about existing on a completely different plane,” Murray said back in 1997.
“This was no publicity stunt.”
Ronaldo would go on to break the world record and leave the Camp Nou that summer, but instead joined Inter Milan in a £19.5m deal – more than half what Rangers were supposedly prepared to pay.
With Gers having suffered financial turmoil, relegation to the fourth tier and this latest European humiliation to the fourth best team in Luxembourg in the two decades since, it is amazing to see just how times have changed.
Rangers’ fans
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