Manchester United did not make an attempt to re-sign Cristiano Ronaldobefore he moved from Real Madrid to Juventus for £99.2 million in July, according to Red Devils manager Jose Mourinho.
The Portuguese forward spent nine seasons with Real after moving to the Santiago Bernabeu from Old Trafford in 2009, and there were rumours United wanted him back.
But Mourinho said it was never an option, per Simon Peach of the Press Association (h/t MailOnline):
“Juventus is one of the teams in Europe that invested to win the Champions League because they don’t need to invest to win the Scudetto. The objective is clearly to win the Champions League, which they were close twice when they reached the final, so they are a top team in Europe that made one of the biggest spending—I think after Liverpool it must be them.
“Fantastic players—Cristiano, [Emre] Can and [Leonardo] Bonucci. Absolutely top. But they are going to have two very difficult matches against us [in Group H of the Champions League]. Cristiano was never on my table to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to Cristiano to come to us. It was never on the table.“
Ronaldo will come up against his former club twice this season in the Champions League after Juve and United were drawn in the same Champions League group, along with Valencia and Young Boys.
The 33-year-old has yet to find his goalscoring touch at Juve, failing to score in either of his first three appearances for the Italian giants.
He endured similar struggles last season with Real, only netting his first La Liga goal of the campaign in his fourth appearance and reaching the turn of the year with four goals in the Spanish top flight.
He continued to be prolific in the Champions League group stage, though, as he scored nine goals in Real’s six Group H matches, and he then netted 22 times in the second half of the La Liga season.
As such, United will know not to underestimate Ronaldo even if he is still struggling for goals come their first meeting with Juve at Old Trafford on October 23.
As a Real player, Ronaldo came up against United in three matches and scored in two of them.
The Red Devils disappointed in the Champions League last term as they were shocked by Sevilla in the last 16.
They face a tough task to even get out of the group in 2018-19, and they will likely need to take something from their two clashes with Juve if they are to advance to the knockout rounds.