Manchester United are a dream destination for many players, though one target disclosed how relieved he was a transfer to Old Trafford collapsed at the 11th hour
Keylor Navas once spoke of his relief that a move to Manchester United from Real Madrid collapsed(Image: Angel Martinez/Real Madrid via Getty Images)
Former Real Madrid goalkeeper Keylor Navas once described his relief that he would not be joining Manchester United. So happy was he to miss out on a move to Old Trafford that he cried when the move was ruled out.
The Costa Rica legend was heavily linked a move to United at several points in his career. The transfer looked most plausible in the summer of 2015 after a fairly unremarkable debut season at the Bernabeu.
Navas, 39, was close to trading places with ex-United stopper David de Gea before the infamous deadline-day fax incident saw the move fall apart. Most players might be sad to miss out on joining United, but the very opposite was true for Navas.
“I cried that night when I found out I was staying, it was a build-up of emotions,” he said during a 2015 interview with radio station Cadena COPE. “I didn’t want to leave, Madrid is my home.
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“I never wanted to leave Real Madrid. My agent told me to be alert to my phone. We had to go to Barajas [airport], although I never actually got on a plane – I was in a waiting room. I thought that if God wanted me to leave Madrid, it would be for the best, but he didn’t want me to…”
Navas and De Gea looked all set to trade clubs in 2015, with United also due to receive £29million as part of the part-exchange deal. However, a fax malfunction was blamed for the deal collapsing after United submitted the paperwork two minutes past the midnight deadline.
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In the end, he was proved correct in his emotions after going on to become a member of Real royalty. Navas reigned between the posts for three consecutive Champions League titles under Zinedine Zidane, also winning four FIFA Club World Cup and La Liga on one occasion.
De Gea, on the other hand, remained at United during what was a disappointing period in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson years. An era of general decline at Old Trafford made the goalkeeper job at United an unenviable position as the club’s title prospects fell through the floor compared to past iterations.
Navas was due to swap places with then-United goalkeeper David de Gea before the move fell apart(Image: Christian Kaspar-Bartke)
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Navas did eventually make the jump to the Premier League almost a decade on from his failed United switch. He joined Nottingham Forest on loan from Paris Saint-Germain in the second half of the 2022/23 season and helped the club barely avoid relegation.
Now playing at Pumas UNAM in Mexico’s Liga MX, the veteran talent continues to impress as his fourth decade comes to a close. He went on to win a catalogue of domestic titles over the course of five years in Paris before departing in 2025.
United, meanwhile, have finally found another reliable custodian between the posts in Senne Lammens. Few were aware of the Belgian prior to him joining from Royal Antwerp on deadline day last year, only for him to surprise with his reliability thus far.
Michael Carrick appears to have full faith in the 24-year-old given United were not seriously associated with any sort of replacement this summer. A great deal of that is likely due to Lammens’ motivation to represent the club, unlike Navas all those years ago.
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