Former Sporting Lisbon chief Carlos Severino has revealed that the Portuguese club received a fee of just 6.5 million pounds from Manchester United for Cristiano Ronaldo 11 years ago.
United had reportedly splashed out just over 13 million pounds to bring the promising 18-year-old Ronaldo to Old Trafford from Sporting in 2003.
Under the guidance of manager Sir Alex Ferguson, Ronaldo developed into one of the world's leading talents helping United win three Premier League titles as well the Champions League crown in 2008, The Daily Star reported.
Ronaldo departed from United for Real Madrid in 2009 for a then world record fee of 80 million pounds and has remained at the Bernabeu ever since, playing a leading role in the club clinching 'La Decima' in May with the Champions League final victory over city rivals Atletico.
Sporting's former communications director, Severino, has now revealed that Sporting received only half of the fee paid by United for then young starlet.
Severino also cited that a huge chunk of United's deal for Ronaldo was paid to third party ownership and saw Sporting fail to truly cash-in on arguably the most talented player to come through their youth ranks.
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Severino said that Sporting received just 6.5 million pounds for the sale to United for the player who is currently the best in the world, adding that it was poor business.
Severino said that United paid 13.7 million pounds for Ronaldo, but 2 million pounds was used to pay commissions and 4.1 million pounds went to fund third-party ownership group First Portuguese Football Players, which owned 35 percent of the player's rights.