AS Monaco vice-president Vadim Vasilyev has revealed an attempt to sign Real Madrid star Cristiano Ronaldo. However, he admits a deal was never a realistic option.

"We met in the spring but we didn't talk [about a move] because he was a Real Madrid player and at that stage he was already in the stage of negotiating for a new contract, while we were working on signing Falcao," Vasilyev told L'Equipe.

"We had to be realistic, because we could not have bought Falcao and Cristiano. Of course we would have loved to have had them both but we had already spent a lot of money and in the future we will have to invest less money in the team. We can't carry on spending and spending - we're going to spend less money and focus on our academy, which is one of the best in France."