La Liga’s Real Madrid has agreed to the 116-million-US-dollar offer for five-time Ballon d'Or winner, Cristiano Ronaldo, from Serie A’s Juventus, according to Spanish journalist Josep Pedrerol on daily sports program Jugones on Tuesday.
According to Tuttosport and Marca, Juventus has prepared a four-year deal with a yearly salary of about 34.9 million dollars. Javier Matallanas from AS wrote that Ronaldo is in his last few days as player for Real Madrid. AS reported that Ronaldo has not yet accepted Juventus’ offer because he wants to hear offers from other teams.
ESPN said that sources close to Ronaldo told them no decision was made by any party and Juventus has not replied to the request for a comment. In June, a source said that Ronaldo was determined to leave Real Madrid but he will only consider joining teams in England, Italy or France.
116 million US dollars is a high enough number as transfer fees for a football player, but not good enough for a man who has won five Ballon d'Or awards and holds the records for most official goals in Europe's top-five leagues (395) and the UEFA Champions League (120). This could be seen as another gesture that both Real Madrid and Ronaldo are ready to part ways.
The relationship may be broken earlier than May 26 when Ronaldo told the press that he will make the decision about his future after winning the third consecutive UEFA Champions League title for Real Madrid. Ronaldo said previously he wanted to renew his contract with Real Madrid several times but never received a clear, positive reply.
Meanwhile, the difference between his yearly wage (about 27 million dollars) and those of Lionel Messi (around 46 million) and Neymar (43 million) has left him wondering about his position compared with those two.
Rumors about him leaving the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium started to heat up then. There were even reports that Real Madrid was considering trading him together with cash for Neymar from Paris Saint-Germain even though Neymar has no honors comparable with him. Though Real Madrid offered to raise his salary, according to Marca, the multiple layers of standards set for him to meet has made the offer look more like a token gesture.