It’s happening again. Cristiano Ronaldo wants out, thus throwing the club’s summer transfer plan into utter disarray. For Juventus 2021, read Manchester United 2022.
This time last year, Ronaldo was castigating the media for reporting – correctly – that he was determined to leave Turin.
And yet, just four days before the close of the transfer window, he joined United.
Then-Juve captain Giorgio Chiellini blamed the club’s slow start to the season on the chaos caused by Cristiano’s eleventh-hour exit.
“It would have been better for us if he had left earlier,” the centre-half told DAZN last September.
“We paid something for it, a little bit of a shock, we paid something for it in terms of points. If he had left earlier, we would have had time to prepare better.”
United must now fear the same ‘Ronaldo effect’. Their pre-season preparations are going well, at least, though nobody is yet sure if that’s because of Ronaldo’s unavailability, or in spite of it.
Not even new boss Erik ten Hag. On the one hand, the Dutchman has insisted that Ronaldo is capable of playing the high-pressing game he wants to implement at Old Trafford. And yet, on the other, he has argued that a coach must adapt to his players.
What we do know for certain, though, is that Ronaldo has made an untimely mess at United.
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As GOAL has already revealed, Ten Hag did not expect to have to go looking for a new forward this summer; he thought the search could be delayed until January at the earliest.
Ronaldo’s transfer request has changed everything, though, generating nothing but further unrest and uncertainty.
Seeing Erling Haaland join Manchester City was bad enough for United but then they were beaten to the signing of Darwin Nunez by Liverpool, meaning there is a serious dearth of attacking options on the market right now.
However, there’s no guarantee that Ronaldo will get the move he wants.
Indeed, the big difference between United’s current predicament, and the situation Juve found themselves in last season, is that there is no obvious buyer for the 37-year-old.
Ronaldo may be renowned for his sense of timing but he and his agent, Jorge Mendes, appear to have got this call badly wrong.
The Portuguese is obviously used to getting what he wants – and what he wants is to continue playing for a Champions League contender.
United won’t even be in the competition next season and as soon as it became clear that a top-four finish was beyond them, Mendes really needed to have a new club lined up for his No.1 client.
Because, right now, less than a fortnight before the start of the season, not one member of Europe’s elite is presently in a position to offer Ronaldo a way out of Old Trafford.
As GOAL explains below, the top nine sides in next season’s Champions League can’t afford the five-time Ballon d’Or winner or, even more damningly, just don’t want him…
9. Atletico Madrid
It has been reported in recent days that Ronaldo could join Atletico Madrid, which is surprising for a number of reasons.
Firstly, Ronaldo used to play for the Rojiblancos’ great rivals Real and has plenty of previous with the club’s fans, having most famously mocked them over his superior tally of European Cup wins with a five-fingered salute after a Juve loss at the Wanda Metropolitano a few years back.
Secondly, he would appear wholly unsuited to playing under Diego Simeone, who demands that his team defends from the front.
Thirdly, and far more importantly, Ronaldo’s wage demands would represent a significant obstacle to any hopes Atletico may have of signing Real’s all-time leading goalscorer.
And yet, in spite of all these hurdles, this is arguably the most feasible transfer – which tells you much about Ronaldo’s lack of options right now.
8. Juventus
Juve’s Ronaldo gamble did not pay off. He may have delivered on his end, breaking a succession of scoring records, as well as boosting the Bianconeri brand.
But Ronaldo failed to deliver Juventus a Champions League – or vice versa, depending on your viewpoint.
The net result is that, as already mentioned, the frustrated forward left the club in the lurch, giving them next to no time to find an adequate replacement.
Juve belatedly moved on in January, though, making a massive financial investment on Dusan Vlahovic, whom they believe to be a generational goalscoring talent in the same bracket as Erling Haaland.
Given the Old Lady is now partaking in some serious book-balancing – Paulo Dybala was released in unceremonious circumstances, while Matthijs de Ligt has just been sold to Bayern Munich – there is no chance of Ronaldo returning to Turin.
7. Paris Saint-Germain
Could a space soon open up on the left-hand side of the PSG attack? Well, as GOAL has already reported, they are willing to listen to offers for Neymar.
However, Neymar is in something of a similar position to Ronaldo: very few sides can actually afford him, given he’d command a massive transfer fee – he only signed a new contract last year until 2025 – and demand a colossal salary.
There’s also the fact that the man himself is reluctant to move right now, given he wants to focus solely on Brazil’s World Cup campaign.
So, unless there’s movement on the Neymar front, it’s difficult to see PSG adding another gargantuan pay packet to an already bloated wage bill.
6. Barcelona
Barcelona obviously had no issue signing a thirty-something goalscoring phenomenon this summer. It’s just that the Catalans wanted Robert Lewandowski instead of Ronaldo.
And they got him, too. They had to mortgage the future of the club to make it happen, of course, but Barca belatedly found a way to sign themselves a superstar striker.
So, even aside from the fact that Ronaldo once revelled in scoring goals against the Blaugrana for former club Real, Xavi is now well-stacked in the attacking department going into the 2022-23 campaign, given Raphinha has also arrived from Leeds, while Ousmane Dembele has extended his stay at Camp Nou.
Barca may be renowned for making nonsensical moves in the transfer market but signing Ronaldo would be ridiculous right now, even for them.
5. Chelsea
For a short while, a controversial move to Stamford Bridge appeared a distinct possibility.
Ronaldo and his representative were clearly open to the idea. Chelsea’s new owners could clearly see some advantages.
Thomas Tuchel, though, was clearly having none of it. And rightly so.
He’s only just managed to rid himself of Romelu Lukaku. The last thing he would have wanted is to be landed with another attacker completely unsuited to his tactical game plan.
Chelsea have instead signed Raheem Sterling, a player 10 years younger and with a proven track record of pressing aggressively.
4. Real Madrid
Earlier this summer, it was reported that Mendes’ private jet had touched down in Madrid, immediately sparking giddy talk of a Ronaldo return to Real.
It was rubbish, of course. Florentino Perez wanted one forward, and one forward alone this summer, and that was Kylian Mbappe, who infuriated Madrid by extending his PSG contract after all-but agreeing a Santiago Bernbaeu switch.
Of course, there remains the possibility that Perez could make a panic-buy, and bring Ronaldo back to Real, but it seems highly unlikely at this stage, given Karim Benzema has become the best striker in the world now that he no longer has to do CR7’s dirty work, while Vinicius Junior has belatedly filled the void left by Ronaldo on the left wing.
As Ronaldo said last year, “My story at Real Madrid has been written.”
3. Manchester City
Just how close did City come to signing Ronaldo last summer? We know they were desperate, having failed to prise top transfer target Harry Kane away from Tottenham.
However, GOAL understands that while Mendes offered Ronaldo to City after the collapse of the Kane transfer, Guardiola was unconvinced.
The board felt that the Portuguese would prove an ideal stop-gap but the manager believed he could make do without a prolific goalscorer for another season, and the Catalan was proven correct.
City then went all-in for Haaland this year and arguably the slickest side in world football will now begin the 2022-23 campaign with the game’s most feared forward up front.
Ronaldo, then, isn’t even on their radar.
2. Liverpool
Can you imagine Ronaldo joining United’s most hated rivals? Actually, don’t bother, it’s just not possible.
And not just because so few players have ever crossed this divide – Sir Alex Ferguson even refused to allow Gabriel Heinze moved to Anfield in 2007, forcing the Argentine to join Real Madrid instead – or the fact that Liverpool have already spent a significant sum of money on Darwin Nunez.
It really just comes down to Ronaldo being utterly incompatible with Jurgen Klopp’s style of play.
Sadio Mane may be gone but can you really imagine the Portuguese working the left flank as tirelessly or selflessly as the Senegalese? Or Luiz Diaz? Or Diogo Jota?…
Actually, again, don’t bother, it’s just not possible.
1. Bayern Munich
Former Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness couldn’t understand Juve’s decision to sign Ronaldo, admitting that they never would have paid €100m for a 33-year-old striker.
The management may have since changed at the Allianz Arena but the policy remains the same.
Bayern, having just sold Lewandowski to Barca, have zero interest in replacing the Polish international with Ronaldo.
“As highly as I rate Cristiano as one of the greatest, a transfer wouldn’t be a fit with our philosophy,” Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn told Kicker.
And that really is the common thread here. Ronaldo really doesn’t fit with a lot of the top club’s footballing philosophies right now.
Of course, the transfer market is infamously unpredictable. Something strange could yet happen.
Ronaldo found a way out of Turin last season; he could yet manage to escape from Manchester.
But it seems unlikely that he’ll end up lining out for one of the favourites for next season’s Champions League.
Why None Of Europe’s Top Teams Want Ronaldo? – Sports – Nigeria (nairaland.com)