The furious Agnelli club does not discount and asks for 30 million euros. Ronaldo doesn’t want to train today
Doubts have become certainties: Cristiano Ronaldo no longer wants to play for Juventus. 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 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 Juve 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 a distant memory. The separation was in the air, but the Bianconeri did not like the way in which the award-winning company Ronaldo & Mendes acted a few days before the end of the transfer market and the request to let the player go away for free. The speech of the salary saved (57 million euros gross) cannot be enough for a Juve that loses a symbol and a 101-goal striker in 134 games in this way: there will be no rescission, therefore, while the request for 25 million euros for the card of the attacker or a player of level in his place.
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 all that has happened, but they do not want to have further economic damage. The request for an exchange with Gabriel Jesus of Manchester City was held back by Guardiola, who yesterday had more telephone contacts with Ronaldo, while Mendes is trying to turn one of his assistants to Juve to find a solution. The idea of sending Ramsey to Wolverhampton in exchange for Ruben Neves goes in that direction, even if the Welsh midfielder (currently injured) does not want to leave Turin.
Meanwhile, Juventus will make their debut at the Stadium in the league tomorrow night, against Empoli, and the presence of CR7 is in strong doubt. These are hectic hours and while waiting Ronaldo continues to pretend nothing has happened, 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 (“We are not interested in signing him,” said Nasser Al Khelaifi) and at most he will challenge him in the Champions League. ‘eternal duello Messi-Ronaldo. The jerseys and checks will change into petrodollars, but some ancient certainty remains.