The night Sir Alex Ferguson tried to sign Karim Benzema for Manchester United from Lyon

The footage is so rare it is not even on YouTube. It is possibly in the vault of a television centre in France, gathering dust. Sky Sports News also aired it.

It is of a 20-year-old Frenchman sheepishly accepting a Manchester United shirt from an insistent Scot. The Frenchman was Karim Benzema. The Scot was Sir Alex Ferguson.

After Benzema scored so ruthlessly against United in the 2008 Champions League knockout stage, Ferguson courted him brazenly in the tunnel of Lyon's old stadium, the Stade Gerland.

Ferguson, a long-time Francophile, was flanked by his friend Gerard Houllier. The late Houllier had stepped down as Lyon manager the previous year and was a technical director for the France national side. Houllier had already spoken to Ferguson about Benzema.

United had just salvaged a 1-1 draw ahead of the second leg at Old Trafford through Carlos Tevez's late leveller. The night belonged to Benzema, though.

The quality of Benzema's goal - left foot, right foot, left foot, goal - was enhanced by the quality of opposition: it was the United of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. Vidic hesitated for a split second when Benzema received the ball with his back to goal and that was all the time he needed to arrow it past Edwin van der Sar.

"Benzema is not as well known across Europe as he is in France," Patrice Evra said after the game, "but Ferguson knows all about him and told us to be particularly wary of him.

"The manner in which he took his goal shows that he is really strong and a huge talent. It is important not to build him up too much but, after (Zinedine) Zidane, he could go on to be one of the greatest French players."

Cameras trailed Ferguson and Houllier as the former practically shoved a United home shirt into