In Hamburg, France is set to face Portugal in the European Championship quarter-finals, a rematch of the 2016 European Championship final. Eight years ago, Ronaldo’s team defeated France at the Stade de France to win the European Championship, which also made Bastia – the 13th team in Ligue 2 last season – regret their decision, as they rejected Ronaldo’s move due to €800,000!
According to reports from AS, in 2003, Bastia were then ranked 12th in Ligue 1. They contacted Sporting CP (now Sporting Portugal) and learned that the 16-year-old Ronaldo was on the transfer list. In his recently published book, “The Bastia Legend”, former Bastia sports official, Joe Bonavita, said: “At the time, Sporting told us that this 16-year-old boy was very talented, he wanted to play in Ligue 1, and his club wanted €800,000 for the transfer fee. I talked to the coach at the time, Gérard Gili, but we rejected the offer.”.
What would Ronaldo’s career have been like if he had joined Bastia at the time? In short, what people saw was that just a few months after Bastia rejected Ronaldo, the rising star joined Manchester United for €17.5 million, starting his brilliant career. This story of “Bastia not signing” between Bastia and Sporting CP 21 years ago has become an anecdote, a little episode in the legendary player’s career.
Bastia are currently in a difficult situation, finishing in the lower reaches of Ligue 2 last season. But this team, founded in 1905 with a long history of 119 years, is also a century-old club in France. They reached the final of the UEFA Cup in 1978, finishing as runners-up. They won the Coupe de France in 1981 and were runners-up in 2002. They also finished as runners-up in the Coupe de la Ligue in 2015. In 2017, Bastia were relegated from Ligue 1, and have since been in trouble, even dropping to the third tier of French football. Now they are back in Ligue 2, the team may not be as glorious as before, but they still have a certain degree of fame in French and even European football.
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