Rio Ferdinand recently spoke about how Thiago Alcantara asked him to convince Man United to sign him in 2013.
He spoke about the entire saga on his Youtube Channel, explaining: “Before Thiago left Barcelona, he called me... We played against Barcelona in the States on tour, and he was unreal. He was playing as the #10, and he scored a worldie.
“So we knew about him anyway, and few years later, Moyes was manager. I don't speak to Thiago, I don't know him, but David De Gea gave him my number. He rang me, and he said, ‘Rio, I would love to come to Man Utd. Can you speak to someone?’
“He said to me, ‘I would love the opportunity to come to Man Utd. Is there anybody that I could or you could speak to see the interest?’. So I spoke to the people at the club, Moyes and Woodward. I mentioned it.
“They said: ‘We're already down the line with a couple of other signings. It's fine.’ He was given 24 hours, Thiago, to make a decision. He ended up ringing me up next morning again, ‘I've slept on it, can you let me know about Man Utd, what's going on?’.
“He said again, ‘I've got 24 hours to make a decision, otherwise Pep won't take me to Bayern Munich’. He ended up going to Bayern Munich, and the rest is history.”
In the end, United signed Marouane Fellaini from Everton instead of Thiago – who went onto enjoy a successful career at Bayern. The Spanish midfielder joined Liverpool last season, but hasn’t been able to live up to expectations or properly adapt himself into the Premier League yet.
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