Cristiano Ronaldo and the Butterfly Effect

By H.Janér

Do you ever wonder how something small, like an insignificant event, ends up snowballing into something huge, potentially changing the lives of everyone involved? This unpredictable series of events is called a “Butterfly Effect,” given its name by meteorologist Edward Lorenz in the 1960s.  

Butterfly effects occur everywhere, from the most meaningless events in people's lives to small decisions in huge situations, like the one I will discuss in this article.  

The year was 2003 – Manchester United had 28-year-old star, David Beckham, playing for their team. This was one of his legendary years in which he scored one of the most iconic goals in football history against Ukraine in the 2002 World Cup. Beckham, however, had a toxic relationship with United’s coach – Alex Ferguson – which led him to want to leave the team. He later joined Real Madrid, and United had to find a replacement for him. That was when Harry Kewell came in, an Australian wunderkind playing for Leeds, wanted by multiple elite teams around Europe. Kewell was bound to go to Liverpool until United, a team who had been pursuing him for some time, tried to hijack the Leeds transfer at the last minute. Kewell was desperately wanted by United, Barcelona, Milan, Chelsea, and many more teams. However, he rejected all of them, as his heart was set on Liverpool.  
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This led to Kewell moving to Liverpool, and Sir Alex Ferguson was left without a replacement for David Beckham. However, one month later, after a 3-1 loss at the hands of Sporting FC in a preseason game, Sir Alex Ferguson settled for 18-year-old Portuguese player Cristiano Ronaldo. Now, 20 years later, Cristiano is arguably the greatest player ever, partially due to Sir Alex Ferguson. Therefore, if Harry Kewell had decided to sign for Manchester United, history would have played out differently.  ​