Jaap Stam: 'Ferguson sold me to Lazio at the petrol station'

Sir Alex Ferguson, most successful Manchester United manager ever and among world’s best, made a number of great decision in his long and fruitful career, but also some mistakes. One of them was to sell Jaap Stam to Lazio. The Dutch defender was bought from PSV in 1998 and although he played only three seasons in Manchester, he is still considered among the club’s best defender ever.

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In his autobiography, which was serialized by the Sunday Mirror, Stam shred lights on his departure from United. The Dutchman was in his thirties, coming of from a long injury and he also caused a stir because of his book „Head to head“, for which Ferguson wasn’t happy. The club also needed the money, so an injury and a book were good excuses to sell Stam.

„On the way home I received a phone call in my car from Fergie's secretary. She said that he wanted to speak to me. He came on the phone straightaway. Ferguson said, 'Where are you?' I said, 'Close to my house, at a petrol station.' Ferguson said, 'Wait there!' He jumped in his car and came straight to me. At the petrol station he parked his car and got in with me. He told me that I had to be transferred. Then he said, 'Will you please move to Lazio quickly?’ I agreed to do it. Right there and then. One quick conversation in my car at a petrol station in Manchester was enough for me to leave that big club. When I think about it now, and I have never talked about it before, I find it unbelievable I let that, as a player, happen to me“ recalls Stam.

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However, the feeling was mutual, as Ferguson, years later, admitted selling The Dutchman was a mistake.

"When I think of disappointments, obviously Jaap Stam was always a disappointment to me, I made a bad decision there. He’d been out for months and, when he came back, Steve McClaren and I thought he had lost a yard of pace. We played Fulham and he didn’t have a good game, and at that moment Lazio come in with an offer. So then Jaap goes to Lazio and he played fantastic. So it was a bad decision. I should maybe have waited a bit longer“ admitted the Scotsman.