Former Turin Juventus sports director, who left these duties in 2006 after a betting scandal, also stated that Cristiano Ronaldo was already supposed to become a player of the "old lady" in 2003. L. Moggi believes that Juventus showed great disrespect to Gonzalo Higuain, whom they should have sold before the arrival of C. Ronaldo. "Ronaldo is a purchase of 'Fiat'. However, many years ago I was close to luring Cristiano to Turin," said L. Moggi. "He was 18 years old at the time and played for Sporting. I met him the next morning and we signed the contract with him. We had to pay 5 billion lira (the former monetary unit in Italy) and include Marcelo Salas in the deal. We would have also paid a billion lira compensation, but Salas refused to move to Portugal and returned to River Plate. Then came Man Utd and bought Ronaldo. At that time, we at Juventus experienced a real crisis and didn't have money," the Italian revealed interesting details. "In terms of marketing, Juventus made an incredible transfer. However, I would never in my life have paid the amount speculated in the society for a 33-year-old player. Moreover, I would never have called him to the team before selling Gonzalo, who has guaranteed 20 goals in the league so far. If I had to make a decision, I would have said goodbye to Higuain for 50 million euros and only then announced Ronaldo," Moggi concluded.
