Ronaldo, Vidic and eight players who almost joined Liverpool

Martin Macdonald

• Updated: 23 May 2023 08:54 CDT
• 6 min read

Liverpool are once again a superpower in English and European football, largely thanks to the work of manager Jurgen Klopp.

At the moment, they have some players who are considered some of the best in the world in their position, like Alisson, Virgil van Dijk and Mohamed Salah.

The Reds haven't always had the pulling power that they enjoy now, however, as over the years they have missed out on a number of transfer targets over the years for a variety of reasons.

FOOTBALLTRANSFERS' MOST VALUABLE PLAYERS IN THE WORLD

Football Transfers looks at eight stars who could have signed for Liverpool.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Everyone knows the story of how Arsenal came close to signing Cristiano Ronaldo before he actually joined Manchester United.

However, back in 2003 when Ronaldo was at Sporting, Liverpool were also interested in the young Portuguese star.

Assistant manager Phil Thompson even travelled to Lisbon to scout Ronaldo, though Liverpool were eventually wary against giving the player a large signing-on fee in the fear that other young players would be upset.

Years later, Thompson recalled how he and manager Gerard Houllier found out they have missed out on Ronaldo.

“Ten days later I was sitting in a lounge at Anfield having some lunch and looking at the big TV screen. Up came the news that Manchester United had signed Ronaldo from Lisbon for £12.2million. Gerard and myself nearly choked on our food.”

Ronaldo joined Man Utd and became the best player in the world at the time.

Nemanja Vidic

Nemanja Vidic would go on to form one of the greatest partnerships in Premier League history alongside Rio Ferdinand at Man Utd.

But, things could have worked out very different for the Serbian if Liverpool's interest materalised into a transfer bid.

Vidic himself has discussed what the deal didn't happen when he was at Spartak Moscow, telling ESPN.

"Yes, in Rafa Benitez's time. I spoke to him about a few things, but my wife was the main one who spoke to him," Vidic explained. "He was interested in signing me, but I don't know what was the problem at the time.

"I spoke to him before I signed for Manchester United, though. I didn't meet, but we spoke over the phone, in my car in Moscow, with my wife translating.

"I didn't say no. They said just that they were interested, they want me. It was going to happen, going to happen. Then someone came and said: 'Do you want to play for United?' and I said yes."

Gabriel Heinze

In 2007, Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez was interested in bringing someone in who could provide cover at left-back and centre-back.

An ideal candidate was identified in the form of Gabriel Heinze.

The problem, he played for their arch rivals, Man Utd.

Heinze had lost his place in the team to Patrice Evra at that point and had allegedly been told by Man Utd that he would be allowed to leave if a certain valuation was met.

Liverpool met that valuation and Heinze wanted to move to Merseyside, but Man Utd did not want to sell to a rival and ultimately the whole situation went to a tribunal.

Man Utd won their case, and Heinze eventually went to Real Madrid.

Gareth Barry

It still seems unthinkable, but Benitez was perfectly happy to sell Xabi Alonso in order to sign Gareth Barry from Aston Villa.

In the end, neither deal happened at that particular time but Benitez was desperate to land Barry, having seen him and Steven Gerrard link up well for England.

According to a report from the Guardian, the deal for Barry was basically done and he was actually fined by Aston Villa for discussing a move away in an interview.

The transfer did not happen for a number of reasons, involving Aston Villa's asking price and the fact that Alonso did not leave.

The Liverpool board also apparently prioritised the acquisition of Robbie Keane.

Dani Alves

In 2006, on the back of a 4-0 thumping of Middlesbrough in the UEFA Cup final, Sevilla’s Dani Alves became available for a fee of just £8million.

And given the Reds’ best right-back at the time was Steve Finnan, a deal for the Brazilian should surely have been made.

Yet, Rafa Benitez, Liverpool’s manager at the time, attempted to negotiate an even cheaper deal and later withdrew all interest in the player when the Spanish outfit refused to budge on the incredibly reasonable asking price.

Instead, Alves signed a new contract and gave it another two seasons before completing his move to Barcelona where the now-38-year-old went on to earn a reputation as one of the greatest full-backs of all time.

Alexis Sanchez

In the summer of 2014, Luis Suarez received a football fan for yet another biting incident, with Italy's Giorgio Chiellini his victim on this occasion at the 2014 World Cup.

That didn't stop Barcelona's pursuit of him, though and they eventually signed him for a fee of around £64.98 million (€82.3 million).

Liverpool faced the almost impossible task of trying to replace them, and the answer lay with the club they had just sold Suarez to, Barcelona.

With Suarez, Neymar and Lionel Messi on the cusp of creating their awesome MSN triumvirate, Alexis Sanchez was going to become nothing more than a squad player.

Liverpool attempted to lure to him Anfield only for the Chilean to eventually join Arsenal instead.

A few reasons have been mentioned for this. One was that Alexis did not want to be seen as a makeweight in any deal for Suarez, and the other is that he preferred to live in London than Merseyside.

Nabil Fekir

In 2018, a deal for Liverpool to sign France international Nabil Fekir from Lyon looked to be a done deal.

That was until the plug was pulled at the last minute, with Liverpool allegedly identifying a previously unknown knee injury that was spotted in his medical.

Talking to L’Equipe a year later, Fekir disputed that point of view, saying:: “What was said is not the truth.

“My knee is good – I had a quick medical check at Clairefontaine [the France national team’s training base], my knee wasn’t even mentioned.

“You want the truth? Even I don’t know, I promise you!

“I did my medical and then [Liverpool] decided not to sign me."

Who knows what happened, then...

Timo Werner

A long-term admirer of compatriot Timo Werner, Klopp had made plans to bring the former RB Leipzig man to Anfield in the summer transfer window of 2020.

And having registered 25 goals and 7 assists in the Bundesliga season prior, it was no surprise that the striker was one of the hottest properties in Europe at the time.

However, given the successes of Liverpool’s attacking trio (Sadio Mane, Roberto Firmino and Mohamed Salah), neither Werner nor Klopp were convinced that a regular place in the starting eleven was there to be had.

As a result, the 25-year-old settled for Frank Lampard’s Chelsea, where he has struggled to hit the heights of Leipzig.

One can only wonder whether Werner’s fortunes would have been different under Klopp, or whether the Reds boss is thankful for not completing the move.