Cristiano Ronaldo has demanded Juventus pay him an outstanding €19.9million (£17m) payment after consulting his lawyers on the issue.
The demand comes after the Portuguese superstar ended his relationship with Manchester United by mutual consent earlier this month, following his bombshell interview with Piers Morgan. However, any decision on a new club is unlikely to be swift as he has switched fully to international mode and is aiming to break multiple different World Cup records.
Leading European clubs have distanced themselves from a move including Real Madrid – where the striker is the all-time club record scorer – who have no interest in a sensational return for Ronaldo. Sporting Lisbon have also distanced themselves from a Ronaldo return alongside Bayern Munich.
Ronaldo’s exit from United means he is no longer earning a wage at club level with the agreement over his Old Trafford departure meaning that he forfeited the remaining seven months of wages from his original contract through to the summer of 2023.
It has now been alleged by Gazzetta dello Sport that Ronaldo has demanded Juventus, whom he left for United in 2021, pay him an agreement that was struck during the Covid pandemic but which was not made public. Indeed, the deal was not reported in the stock market or the club’s balance sheet.
Ronaldo’s demand comes a week after the entire board of Juventus resigned; president Andrea Agnelli, vice-president Pavel Nedved and managing director Maurizio Arrivabene were among a glut of high-ranking Juve board members to walk away from their positions.
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It has been suggested that the mass resignations were linked to the board’s involvement in the Prisma investigation, which is being looked into by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office. The investigation reportedly involves 15 different people at Juventus and relates to alleged false accounting and market manipulation. Last month, Juventus denied any wrongdoing after the allegations emerged following an examination of the club's financial statements.
After winning nine successive Serie A titles between 2012 and 2020, Juve have finished fourth in the past few campaigns. They have not made it past the round of 16 in the last three editions of the Champions League. They are currently third in the Italian top-flight, behind Napoli and AC Milan and were knocked out of the Champions League in the group stages in October.
Ronaldo’s demand comes as Saudi club Al Hilal have submitted a transfer proposal to the striker to rival an earlier bid made by their domestic rivals Al Nassr. The nation’s Sports minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal already told Sky News that he would welcome Ronaldo’s arrival to the domestic league.
