Ronaldo ‘can leave Juventus for just £25m’
Cristiano Ronaldo can leave Juventus for just £25million.
The Italians are reeling financially and their premature Champions League exit has only exacerbated those troubles.
According to Corriere dello Sport via Football Italia, the Old Lady would be willing to sell the five-time Ballon d’Or winner this summer for just a quarter of the price they paid for him in 2018.
That would enable the club to avoid a capital loss, the report adds.
Ronaldo’s contract expires in 2022 but getting his reported £540,000-a-week salary off the wage bill would save £28m next season.
There were suggestions he was hoping to get a 12-month extension on his current deal but the club appear unwilling to grant that request.
Juventus CEO Fabio Patratici said this week: “Fortunately, there is still a year on Ronaldo’s contract, so we have time to talk to him. That’s not a priority right now.”
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Reports in Spain suggest Ronaldo’s super-agent Jorge Mendes is in discussions with Real Madrid over a stunning return while Le Parisien thinks Paris Saint-Germain are monitoring the situation closely.
In the event that Kylian Mbappe does leave, club president Nasser Al-Khelaifi will be desperate to land either Ronaldo or Lionel Messi.
The Le Parisien report also claims Mendes and Al-Khelaifi are in close contact and have a good relationship, regularly texting or video calling each other.
Ronaldo, 36, was brought in for £99m with one of the primary targets to help lead the club back to the top of European football.
Juve have not won the Champions League since 1996 – although they were beaten finalists in 1997, 1998, 2003, 2015 and 2017.
And since Ronaldo’s arrival in Turin, their knockout record does not make pretty reading.
A hat-trick in the second leg of their 2018-19 last-16 clash against Atletico Madrid inspired their only knockout tie victory.
Ajax dumped them out in the very next round that year before shock exits at the hands of Lyon and now Porto.
Domestically, Ronaldo has won two Serie A crowns but no Coppa Italias – and Andrea Pirlo’s side currently sit third in the table, ten points adrift of leaders Inter Milan.