It is one of United manager Sir Alex Ferguson's major regrets that he did not snap Van der Sar up when he decided to leave Ajax in 1999 and, as things turned out, the keeper might have been better advised to join the Old Trafford outfit.

Yet Van der Sar still feels he made the right move.

He said: "A lot of people say that I should have gone to United instead but I had already had two meetings with Juventus before United came in.

"It was not like I was talking to Palermo or Fiorentina. They were two great clubs on the same level and you cannot make choices with the benefit of hindsight."