Monza director Adriano Galliani jokingly says he would beat Ronaldinho up and reveals Real Madrid President Florentino Perez wanted to sign Andriy Shevchenko in 2001 before going for Zizou Zidane.
The former Rossoneri director is one of the guests of Gazzetta dello Sport’s Festival dello Sport in Trento and offered some interesting insights about his incredibly successful time at Milan where he contributed to winning 29 trophies.
Ronaldinho was among the players he signed during his 31-year spell at the club. He scored 26 goals in 95 games with the Rossoneri winning the Serie A title in 2010-11, but Galliani believes he could have achieved even more throughout his career.
“I would beat him up,” he said smiling.
“It was so entertaining to watch Ronaldinho and Ronaldo train at Milanello. I only blame Ronaldinho for one thing: he was too much of a bon vivant, like many Brazilians. If he weren’t such a lover of music, the fairer sex and cooled beers, he could have played until he was 60. The same goes for Ronaldo the phenomenon and Adriano or even Rivaldo.
“Ronaldinho’s pure class was incredible. If the Brazilians were as focused as the Europeans, they would have won all the World Cups, but they have just five.”
Galliani also recalled a meeting with Florentino Perez in 2001, when the Real Madrid President offered Milan 110 billion Lira to sign their striker Shevchenko.
“It was on the same day as the Champions League Final between Valencia and Bayern Munich [at San Siro]. Florentino sat close to me and offered 110 billion [Lira] for Shevchenko.
“He said: ‘If you don’t sell him, I’ll go to Turin in the afternoon and get Zidane.’ I called the President [Silvio Berlusconi] who refused to sell.”
Zidane joined Real Madrid that same summer for 150b Lira, circa €77.5m, becoming the most expensive signing ever at that time.