Liverpool were interested in signing Ronaldo after he broke onto the scene at Sporting Lisbon.

But former Reds manager Gerard Houllier recently admitted he was unwilling to meet his wage demands and instead signed Kewell from Leeds United for £5m.

Ronaldo joined Liverpool’s fierce rivals Manchester United that same summer and went on to win nine honours - including three Premier League titles and the Champions League - before joining Real Madrid six years later.

But Kewell, who also helped guide Liverpool to European glory, believes Houllier made the right decision signing him over Ronaldo.

“I mean back when I signed for Liverpool, I think I was the number one person to go round in that year,” Kewell told Spanish newspaper AS Diario.

“I think he [Houllier] made the right decision.

“In hindsight yes, you could turn around and say a lot of things, there’s a lot of great players that have gone elsewhere that have never been signed.

“I think recently the biggest one was Raul. He got let go by Atletico Madrid and then look where he went to.”

Houllier admitted earlier this month that he had no regrets about signing Kewell over Ronaldo, who has claimed four Ballon d’Or awards.

"I saw him in the Toulon Under-21 tournament and we went for him," Houllier told the Liverpool Echo.

"But we had a wage scale and we weren't paying the sort of salary he wanted.

"Then Manchester United played a friendly against Sporting Lisbon and all their boys said to Sir Alex Ferguson: 'You have to sign him'.

“Maybe we would have won the title with Ronaldo, but we had Harry Kewell, who was outstanding at the time and was very hungry but got a bad injury.”