In the summer of 1999, when French manager Gerard Houllier was in charge of Liverpool, the club strengthened its defence with Finnish defender Sami Hyypia and Swiss defender Stéphane Henchoz, but wanted to strengthen further.
The target was former French defender Mikael Silvestre, who was playing for Inter Milan at the time. A defender who could play as a left-back or centre-back, he retired in 2015 with Chennaiyin FC as his last club.
The 47-year-old, who has made a total of 40 appearances for France, recalled the transfer drama that took place in 1999.
He revealed that Liverpool had presented him with an offer, but it was not attractive, and he immediately decided to move to Manchester United, who then joined the fray.
“Back in 1999 when I first joined United, the press was full of stories that I was about to sign for Liverpool,”
“But trust me, I wasn’t that close!”
“It’s true that Liverpool came first with a formal offer from Gerard Houllier, but it wasn’t an attractive offer at the time.”
“I was at Inter, playing with Ronaldo, Roberto Baggio, World Cup winner Youri Djorkaeff, Diego Simeone, young Andrea Pirlo, so it was quite a special club to be at, even if we had four managers in one season. So, when Liverpool came, I wasn’t jumping around on the roof.”
“A few days later, when I received a call from Sir Alex there was no hesitation,”
“Sir Alex was a different matter for me.”
“I’d also had the experience of coming to Old Trafford with Inter the previous season for the Champions League quarter-final, and that night I remember thinking to myself: ‘Wow, this is something else’. The atmosphere was electric.”
“I played in the return at the San Siro and after that I followed United through to that crazy final against Bayern Munich. It helps when you lose against the team that wins the competition; it makes it easier to swallow, somehow.”
“So, when Sir Alex gave me the chance to join that amazing team, I had no hesitation at all.”
“Things then moved really quickly. I arrived Thursday afternoon, had dinner with the manager, next morning I had the medical, signed my contract, went to training and then travelled on Friday afternoon with the team for an 11.30am kick-off on the Saturday.”
“And, by a crazy twist of fate, the fixture list meant that my first game was against Liverpool at Anfield!”
Liverpool Echo