Now Chelsea, Bayern, Atl. Madrid and Naples. Before, also Barcelona, PSG, Roma and a millionaire proposal that came from Saudi Arabia. In public terms, this was the list of possible destinations for Cristiano Ronaldo this summer if he left Manchester United. However, behind the scenes, another club was always present. Ubiquitous or as a mere utopia, it was there. Now, that same club, to begin to be mentioned in the international press (in this reference case), also jumped from the background to the first line of possible scenarios. This is where Sporting is.
Arrival with Mendes, presence of Ferguson, training, meeting and an enigmatic message: Ronaldo’s day and the chances on the table
According to The Athletic (digital newspaper for subscribers that was bought this year by The New York Times for $550 million), the first publication to report on the striker’s return to Manchester earlier this week, Jorge Mendes will have had talks with Sporting in the sense of a possible return of the captain of the selection to Alvalade this season. However, he also adds two possible major obstacles: 1) the complex operation that would be to find money to satisfy what the number 7 receives; 2) the reservations that Rúben Amorim would have due to the impact that his arrival could have.
Even so, the information arrived one day when two other hypotheses were gaining strength, through different countries and the press: in England, the fact that neither of the parties had given up their interests and also that they were already training integrated with the equipment. brings Ronaldo closer to the possible scenario of continuity at Old Trafford; in Spain, the Atl option. Madrid has not lost any of the strength it had before, The capital club is unaware of the demonstrations made by fans who reject the arrival of the Portuguese and seeking a solution to other cases such as that of Griezmann and/or Morata in the sense of finding a sporting and economic space to receive the forward of the Red Devils.
But how is the file at this point? And what future paths might actually exist for the 37-year-old who is also preparing to take part in the world fifth of the career?
Cristiano Ronaldo has reiterated his desire to leave #MUFCwith Sporting explored as a possible new club.
CL’s goal record against Lionel Messi seen as a motivating factor.
Antonio ruled out at this stage. Talk about Benjamin Sesko but Salzburg is reluctant to sell.https://t.co/PacAp5bj1v
— Laurie Whitwell (@lauriewhitwell) July 28, 2022
According to several sources contacted by The Observer, one of the points to take into account is related to the reasons that lead Ronaldo to ask to leave Manchester United. The Portuguese would like to play the Champions League again next season, something that has been happening consecutively since 2003 between Red Devils, Real Madrid and Juventus, and he knows he still has some potential records to break. However, and as he insisted on explaining the English club from the beginning of the preseason, the player’s absence was related to “personal problems” what I was trying to solve. It was that, once again, what the captain of the National Team mentioned in the conversation with coach Erik ten Hag and that is the main basis of the desire to leave the group to which he returned last summer after passing between 2003 and 2009. .
Uncertainty in Ronaldo’s future. “The CR7 brand is at stake”
The Daily Mail announced this Thursday that Jorge Mendes, Ronaldo’s manager who was at the Carrington training center on Tuesday with the striker and Ricardo Regufe, a close friend with professional connections in various aspects such as representing Nike, had proposed a scenario of Termination of contract with Manchester. States, something that would have been rejected. For the Observer, two different sources explained the same thing: the player does not intend to be wrong, he does not want to offend the club at all and a possible contract renewal scenario for 2023/24 has even been addressed (option clause that is provided for in the agreement signed last summer) if he could leave Old Trafford this season.
The possibility Atl. Madrid appears precisely as a paradigmatic example of the will to leave the club and the city of Manchester at this stage. Of all the clubs issued in recent weeks, the only one with whom there were talks with the consent of Manchester United itself was Chelsea, according to The Times, until the moment when Thomas Tuchel decided to channel the existing funds to the defensive sector that lost Rüdiger and Christensen and could still see Azpilicueta and/or Marcos Alonso leave (with Raheem Sterling already in charge). For the rest, Bayern also considered a possible signing but ruled it out, while everything else was just rumors except for the Spanish club, no matter how much its leader Enrique Cerezo says that it is “almost impossible”.
Chelsea: ????♂️
Bayern: ????♂️
Athletic: ????♂️Cristiano Ronaldo is running out of options to leave Manchester United… pic.twitter.com/jlASVATJPS
— B/R Football (@brfootball) July 27, 2022
Ronaldo knows what he has a difficult legacy to repeat at Real Madrid, where he won four Champions Leagues among many other titles and became a true legend with the goal record, but he also knows that the possibility of returning to the Santiago Bernabéu with Florentino Pérez (even as he went to Juventus in 2018) does not exist. . Even so, and knowing the resentment that some fringes of the Atl. Madrid may have more than a decade for duels, the striker knew how to put everything aside, even knowing what he could “lose”, in order to leave Old Trafford.
The day of the “no” to Ronaldo. “It doesn’t fit into the current philosophy,” explains Bayern. “We would not accept the contract,” says Casas do Atl. Madrid
It is in this context that Sporting emerged, which I’ve known about the whole situation for a few weeks. in which the player who gives his name to the club’s Academy in Alcochete participates. In fact, the first conversations by third parties that raised this hypothetical scenario of returning to Alvalade for now (and not at a later stage of his career to be able to join the lions) came at a time when it was known that Ronaldo would not form part of Manchester United’s options for the tour of Asia and Australia. However, no one from the club speaks about this scenario, between those who consider it an almost impossible scenario and those who take the matter as “it doesn’t matter” until several conditions are confirmed. Because? It all depends on the player.
If he even manages to free himself from the English team in a definitive context or on loan for a season with a return in 2023/24, something that is not given at this point (far from it), and if there is no possibility of being part of a squad that guarantee another type of competitiveness in the Champions League, such as Atl. Madrid, Sporting is a real opportunity for Ronaldo. What’s more: it is a hypothesis that he himself knows to the point of knowing that his current salary would have to be lowered a lot (there are other possible business models capable of guaranteeing that he would charge much more than any partner without SAD leonine breaking the current stipulated salary cap for the template). Then the matter of Amorim. At this point, and given the players who are available, the coach considers that the squad is closed. Even so, also with the possible exits that still exist, the striker would always be seen as an asset, being a scenario that, at the moment, nobody wants to equate “seriously” in Alvalade.
Source: Observadora
