The furious bianconeri do not give discounts and ask 30 million euros for his card. Today the champion does not want to train
TORINO
Doubts have become certainties: Cristiano Ronaldo no longer wants to play for Juve. After weeks of questions with zero words expressed, a few smiles dispensed and many stomach ache collected, the Portuguese champion yesterday went to the break with the Juventus club. Not directly, given that CR7 trained regularly at Continassa, but through his agent after the urgent call by the Juventus managers to “discuss” what was happening.
Jorge Mendes landed in Turin on Wednesday evening to take stock of the situation with Ronaldo, given that he had just collected Manchester City’s willingness to sign him after Kane’s non-arrival, but before meeting the English managers in Paris (last night) he did not was able to dribble the summit with Juventus at lunchtime. The Portuguese super agent was picked up from the city center hotel by a van with tinted windows and taken to the Continassa to speak with Vice President Nedved, CEO Arrivabene and DS Cherubini. It was not a pleasant meeting, given the theme and tone of the discussion. Champagne and smiling photos on the island of Kamata, after President Andrea Agnelli’s blitz to close the “coup of the century” on 10 July 2018, are such a distant memory. The separation was in the air, even if the penta Ballon d’Or had always reassured Juve and Allegri himself of his stay, but the Bianconeri did not like the way the award-winning company Ronaldo & Mendes acted a few days before the end of the market. And the rest was done by the request to let the player go for free.
The speech of the salary saved (57 million euros gross) cannot be enough for a Juve that must find a replacement after losing a symbol and a 101-goal striker in 134 games: there will be no termination, therefore, while the request for 25-30 million euros for the attacker’s card was reiterated. After 1143 days, therefore, the story is over and as in all divorces it ends talking about money. Juventus know that they cannot hold Ronaldo back after everything that has happened, but they do not want to have further economic damage and Mendes is looking for a solution. He can compensate Juve with Ramsey at Wolverhampton in exchange for the midfielder Ruben Neves: it will take patience and money, or a little imagination, but time is running out and now it’s up to Allegri to put a patch on it too. Tomorrow evening Juventus will make their debut at the Stadium in the league, against Empoli, and today they will have to decide what to do with Ronaldo, who could only show up in the locker room to greet his teammates.
His suitcases are ready and Mendes is expected back in Turin to close the operation. These are hectic hours and while waiting CR7 continues to ignore it, as yesterday he tweeted an advertising campaign to attract tourists to his Madeira. He already has his head in the City, ready to offer him a two-year contract worth 20 million net per season, while PSG officially pulls out of the race (“We are not interested in signing him,” said Nasser Al Khelaifi) and at most he will challenge him in Champions in the eternal Messi-Ronaldo duel. The jerseys and checks will change into petrodollars, but some ancient certainty remains. –