5 Ballon d'Or winners who almost joined the Premier League

#1 Ronaldinho

Ronaldinho was a wanted man in 2002 when he still with PSG

Ronaldinho emerged as one of the most exciting prospects in Europe in 2002 when he won the World Cup with Brazil at the age of 22. He had already established himself as a skilful attacker with PSG at the club level.

The player who won the Ballon d'Or in 2005 with Barcelona, was earmarked by Sir Alex Ferguson as the best possible replacement for the departing Beckham in 2003.

And the Scot was left baffled when he learnt that Barcelona had pipped him in landing the Brazilian, he was quoted saying:

"I thought we'd clinched the deal (for Ronaldinho), but when I flew to Paris to speak with him, the goalposts seemed to have moved somehow."

In a recent interview, he revealed that he almost became a Manchester United player, before Barcelona quickly swooped in to change his mind and he decided to move to Spain. This is what he said about the transfer deal in the interview:

"It almost happened. It was a matter of 48 hours but Sandro Rosell had told me way before I got the offer: "If I become Barca president, will you come?" I said yes"

"It was only a matter of details with United when Rosell called to say he was going to win the elections there. And I had promised to him that I'd play for Barca. It was a quick negotiation."