Martin O'Neill almost signed Brazilian Ballon d'Or winner while in charge of Celtic

Martin O’Neill was once in talks to sign Rivaldo when manager of Celtic. 

In conversation with co-host Clive Tyldesley on their podcast ‘The Football Authorities’, the Kilrea native spoke about the time he almost acquired the signature of the 2002 World Cup winner with Brazil. 

O’Neill was appointed manager of the Scottish club in the summer of 2000, replacing John Barnes and Kenny Daglish, until his resignation in May 2005.

While at the helm of Celtic, he won three League titles, three Scottish Cups, and a League Cup, with the former Republic of Ireland manager still holding the highest win rate of any manager in the club's history at 75.5 percent. 

During this five-year period with the Glaswegian club, the former Northern Ireland international signed many fan favourites, but he missed out on the two-time La Liga winner with Barcelona.

O’Neill said: “Rivaldo’s agent was in touch with us, and there was definitely an interest, despite the fact that Rivaldo was probably the same age as me at the time, and I think there was a bit of a problem with that there.

“It didn’t materialise but there was certainly more than just an initial contact, and it had gone a little bit further than we thought it might do, but I think both parties just pulled out of it because Rivaldo was a fantastic player, but he was coming to the end of his career at the time.”

Rivaldo, during those five years, was contracted to Barcelona, AC Milan, Cruzeiro, and Olympiacos, winning the Champions League with the Italian side in 2003 and many other honours with those clubs.

The Brazilian was 33 years old by the time O’Neill resigned from Celtic and was considered too old by the County Derryman, but the 1999 Ballon d'Or winner would play for a further 10 years, only fully retiring in 2015.