According to reports from The Metro yesterday evening, Manchester United have a ‘great chance’ of signing Cristiano Ronaldo next summer.
What’s the word?
According to French journalist Frederic Hermel, Cristiano Ronaldo will leave Real Madrid at the end of the season, giving former employers Manchester United, long-term admirers PSG and clubs from the MLS a ‘great chance’ of signing the Portugal international.
He said; “I think that Cristiano Ronaldo will leave Real Madrid at the end of the season. I have information that confirms this. I’ve been told by strong sources, very important ones, that Manchester [United], Paris Saint-Germain and the MLS have a great chance of fighting over Cristiano Ronaldo’s services at the end of the season.”
How good is he?
Ronaldo’s career stats
Nothing fantastic, just one of the two best players in the world alongside Lionel Messi. The Portuguese is a two-time Champions League winner, a three-time Ballon d’Or winner and currently the top scorer in Champions League history with a whopping 80 goals – 65 of which have come since swapping Old Trafford for the Bernabeu by way of an £80million transfer in 2009, a move which has propelled Ronaldo to the realms of averaging over a goal per game.
Even at the age of 31, which the winger-forward will be next summer, he’s still capable of totaling around 50 goals per season. In fact, last term was a career best for Ronaldo, bagging 61 in 54, and he’s already netted eight times in half the amount of appearances this term – including a hat-trick over Shaktar Donetsk yesterday evening.
Why would he want to leave Real Madrid/Why would they sell him?
Very good question. Ronaldo ‘s agent – the world renowned Jorge Mendes – has claimed in the past that he’ll retire a Real Madrid player. But earlier this week, club president Florentino Perez said that he ‘can’t be sure‘ of such a scenario, which in itself is a rather big statement considering how crucial the forward is to the Spanish giants’ success. You’d expect him to try and stub out all interest in Ronaldo before it becomes uncontrollable, but Perez’ recent comments invite huge speculation – suggesting an unwillingness to commit himself in fear it could make him look very silly a few months down the line.
Ronaldo is just two goals away from becoming Real Madrid’s all-time top scorer
Furthermore, Ronaldo will turn 31 in February and it may simply be that he wants a new challenge, especially now that he’s just two goals shy of Raul’s top scorer record, whilst Real Madrid’s unquenchable lust for spending £60-oddmillion on whichever player has become the flavour of the month in world football is well-known. They also spent £87million on Gareth Bale two summers ago, making him the most expensive player in the world, but the Welshman will always be overshadowed by the three-time Ballon d’Or winner netting a goal per-game on the other wing.
Likewise, Ronaldo’s frosty relationship with Rafa Benitez, who took over from Carlo Ancelotti during the summer, has been well-documented in recent months. During pre-season, Ronaldo was heard to shout “It’s meant to be the ball in there, in the net. Not this s—,” at his new manager, whose training methods apparently include the crossbar challenge, and earlier this week, Benitez made the monumental faux pas of questioning the 30 year-old’s status as the best player in the world – but quickly cleared it up during a press conference yesterday.
Most interestingly, Ronaldo’s contract will enter it’s final two years next summer, which is usually the last chance for selling clubs to rake in a huge fee.
What’s the likeliest destination and what kind of price?
A move to the MLS would be incredibly premature, considering Ronaldo has Spanish and European defences on toast on a bi-weekly basis. The phrase ‘men against boys’ is often used to describe physical and technical superiority in football but the Portuguese in the USA would be closer to ‘boys against god’. Whoever he joins, most likely New York FC, New York Red Bulls or LA Galaxy, will have won the MLS title before a ball’s even been struck.
Meanwhile, although a return to the Premier League is by no means beyond Ronaldo, it would hardly constitute a new challenge for him. That’s also working on the assumption that Manchester United would be willing to pay a monolithic transfer fee – which one can only assume would be within the £60million-£70million bracket – and equally monolithic wages for a 31 year-old who at some point over the next few years may start to inevitably decline.
Likewise, United have just invested £61million in youthful winger-forwards Memphis Depay and Anthony Martial, so adding another to the squad they have no chance of surpassing in the pecking order would be short-sighted to say the least.
PSG, on the other hand, are never far away from Ronaldo in the transfer rumour columns and we know they’ve got a virtually limitless pot of money to spend as long as they can continue sidestepping Financial Fair Play regulations. The theory is that they’ll look to replace the iconic Zlatan Ibrahimovic with the equally iconic Real Madrid forward when the former’s Parc de Princes contract expires at the end of the season. Due to the limited quality of Ligue 1, PSG need figures like Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo and Thiago Silva to continue attracting top names – Angel Di Maria and David Luiz for example – and moving to Paris would certainly be a new chapter in the Portuguese’s career, rather than simply revisiting an old one.
In terms of price, our guess is somewhere around the £60million mark. Earlier this summer, Perez insisted that he’d cost €1billion (£728million), but that’s obvious hyperbole.
How reliable is the story?
The Metro are capable of turning virtually anything into a full-blown transfer saga and overall, they’re pretty low on the British media’s transfer rumour pecking order.
But the quote is obviously from an outside source, french journalist Frederic Hermel, who originally told French publication Le 10 Sport. He’s an expert in all things La Liga or more specifically all things Real Madrid and is best famed for being on bro-terms with Karim Benzema. In June 2014 he claimed Benzema would sign a new contract at the Bernabeu after the World Cup and in August that’s exactly what happened.
In addition, he’s meant to be on good terms with president Perez, has worked as a consultant on Real Madrid TV and even started his own fan group in 2013. So it would be rather surprising if Hermel was making up stories at the expense of his own reputation and a club he essentially supports.
The Express and The Daily Star, are the only newspapers to adopt the story on line, however, which hardly inspires confidence. Likewise, Ronaldo has been linked with returning to Old Trafford during essentially every transfer window since leaving, so Manchester United fans will find this story hard to believe.