Cristiano Ronaldo joined Manchester United from Sporting in 2003 for a reported fee of around €17.5m. The boy from Madeira came with bags of potential but very had predicted that in 10 years’ time he would become one of the best players in the world.

The Portuguese winger replaced an iconic figure at the club, David Beckham, and went on to create his own legacy, by winning three Premiership title and one Champions League. It was at United, he first won the Ballon d’Or award in 2008.

After a glorious six years stint at Old Trafford, he moved to Real Madrid for the-then world record transfer fee, something in the region of €94m. And rest is history. 

Everyone has benefitted from his transfers – Manchester United, Real Madrid and the player himself. But, what about Sporting They feel they’ve done the worst piece of business ever, having only received €8.25m from his transfer to Manchester United.

Carlos Severino said in an interview to newspaper Publicio relayed by Portuguese newspaper Record: “Sporting received only8.25 million euros from the sale to Manchester United who is currently the best player in the world. It was a poor business.”

He added: “Manchester United advanced with 17.5 million euros to sign Ronaldo, but 2.5 million were used to pay commissions and 5.25 million were for the third parties – First Portuguese Football Players, connected to BES,which held 35 percent of the player’s pass. 

“By this percentage, Sporting received 627 thousand euros, after Ronaldo’s pass have been valued at 1.8 million,when he was 16 years old” 

It makes sense now why the governing bodies are keen to put an end this third party transfer system. In fact, Sporting are struggling with court-cases for the transfer of Marcos Rojo, another transfer deal involving Manchester United.