Editing Jaap Stam (section)

===Manchester United===
In April 1998, Stam became the then [[World football transfer record|most expensive]] defender in history when [[Manchester United F.C.|Manchester United]] bought him on a five-year contract for [[Pound sterling|£]]10.6&nbsp;million. PSV initially valued him at £15 million, but accepted the lower offer after Stam waived his right to 15% of the fee.<ref>{{cite news |title=Stam the man as Reds fork out record £10m |url=https://www.independent.ie/sport/stam-the-man-as-reds-fork-out-record-10m-26191468.html |access-date=10 August 2021 |work=[[The Irish Independent]] |date=27 April 1998}}</ref>

Stam spent three seasons at Manchester United, during which time United won three [[Premier League]] titles, one [[FA Cup]], the [[Intercontinental Cup (1960–2004)|Intercontinental Cup]] and the [[UEFA Champions League]]. He scored his only goal for the club in a 6–2 away victory against [[Leicester City F.C.|Leicester City]].<ref>{{cite news |first=Ken |last=Jones |title=O'Neill faces up to Premiership's harsh reality |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football-oneill-faces-up-to-premierships-harsh-reality-1074789.html |work=[[The Independent]] |location=London |date=16 January 1999 |access-date=4 November 2009 }}</ref>

In the [[1999 UEFA Champions League final]], Stam's centre-back partner [[Ronny Johnsen]] conceded a free kick on the edge of the penalty area when he brought down [[Bayern Munich]]'s [[Carsten Jancker]] in the first few minutes. [[Mario Basler]] scored the free kick and Bayern held the lead for 85 minutes before United scored two goals in added time to win the tournament.<ref>{{cite news |title=United crowned kings of Europe |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sport/football/353842.stm |access-date=26 May 2024 |publisher=BBC Sport |date=26 May 1999}}</ref>

Early in the [[2001–02 in English football|2001–02]] season, Stam was controversially sold to [[SS Lazio|Lazio]] in Italy after Manchester United manager [[Alex Ferguson|Sir Alex Ferguson]] was reportedly upset by allegations Stam had made in his autobiography ''Head to Head'' about the club. Stam made numerous statements in the book about his views on opposing players, and alleged that Ferguson's approach to buy him was done without the permission of PSV.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/osm/story/0,,543938,00.html |work=The Guardian |location=London |title=Interview: Jaap Stam |access-date=5 May 2010 }}</ref> Later, [[Simon Kuper]] reported that contrary to initial belief, Ferguson had noticed that Stam's tackling numbers were declining and simply assumed the defender was past his playing peak.<ref name="Soccernomics">{{cite book |title=Soccernomics: Why England Loses, Why Spain, Germany, and Brazil Win, and Why the U.S., Japan, Australia, Turkey—And Even Iraq—Are Destined to Become the Kings of the World's Most Popular Sport |last=Kuper |first=Simon |author-link=Simon Kuper |author2=Szymanski, Stefan |year=2012 |publisher=[[Nation Books]] |location=New York, NY |isbn=978-1-56858-701-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/soccernomicswhye0000kupe/page/148/mode/2up 148] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/soccernomicswhye0000kupe/page/148/mode/2up }}</ref> [[Laurent Blanc]] was signed as his replacement.<ref>{{cite news |title=Man Utd seal Blanc deal |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/m/man_utd/1516683.stm |access-date=26 May 2024 |publisher=BBC Sport |date=30 August 2001}}</ref>

In 2007, however, Ferguson described the decision to sell Stam as an error: "At the time he had just come back from an achilles injury and we thought he had just lost a little bit. We got the offer from Lazio, £16.5m for a centre back who was 29. It was an offer I couldn't refuse. But in playing terms it was a mistake. He is still playing for Ajax at a really good level."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/ferguson-will-never-talk-to-the-bbc-again-401487.html|title=Ferguson will never talk to the BBC again|date=6 September 2007|access-date=29 November 2011|work=The Independent|location=London|first=Nick|last=Harris}}</ref> On the financial report, Manchester United announced the fee was £15.3&nbsp;million;<ref>{{cite web |url=http://production.investis.com/manutd/findata/reports/anrep01/chstat.pdf |title=Homepage |access-date=6 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120323012430/http://production.investis.com/manutd/findata/reports/anrep01/chstat.pdf |archive-date=23 March 2012}}</ref> Lazio declared the fee was £16&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite press release|url=http://www.sslazio.it/news/visualizza_news.asp?idnews=502&titolo=2|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20020112215436/http://www.sslazio.it/news/visualizza_news.asp?idnews=502&titolo=2|archive-date=12 January 2002|title=Stam alla Lazio|date=26 August 2001|access-date=24 September 2017|publication-place=Rome|publisher=SS Lazio|language=it}}</ref>