He's back. It's interesting to see how it happened. Many speculated back in May about why it might make sense.
Although Juventus didn't offer him much, with projected losses of more than 300 million over the next two years, they made it clear that they would not stand in his path. They offered him a fee equaling his residual amortized value (28m... the game now belonged to the accountants as much or less) and they were willing to pay him a fee. His contract had one year remaining. Extending it would be difficult. The club was looking to rebuild their youth program.
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Manchester United was able to pay his wages and sign him, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer loved the idea of a veteran goal-scorer who could bring energy to the attack and be a role model for younger players. The club signed Edinson-Cavani to a one year deal, which was about to expire.
Ronaldo could leave Juventus to join Man United, so Cavani's departure would offset at least some of his wages.
But it didn't happen. United gave Cavani another year on May 10. This effectively closed the door to Ronaldo's early move. We discovered that Ronaldo wanted to move out of the blue.
Although there were some hints, they didn't begin to appear until two weeks ago. Edu Aguirre was a journalist who is very close to Ronaldo. His Instagram account has photos of Ronaldo on holiday together. He said Real Madrid wanted him to return. Their manager Carlo Ancelotti posted a rare Twitter denial. Ronaldo also wrote a lengthy post in which he spoke about his focus and said that he doesn't want people "to keep playing around [with] his name." He also mentioned the name of his former team, Juventus, an astounding total of zero times.
Real Madrid offered 160 million for Paris Saint-Germain's Kylian Mbappe earlier this week. Soon after, rumors began to circulate that Ronaldo could be moving to Manchester City, or possibly to PSG, if Mbappe moves. He would have teamed up with Lionel Messi at PSG, which is football's equivalent to a Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal doubles squad or Magic Johnson joining Larry Bird.
Ronaldo won the Premier League title and the Champions League at Manchester United, his first attempt. What will he do next time? Laurence Griffiths/Getty Images
Things started to get very real by Thursday morning. Jorge Mendes, Ronaldo's agent, visited Turin to inform Juventus that Ronaldo wanted out and that he was close in negotiating a deal with Manchester City. Juventus agreed to this offer and suggested that the rebuild might be completed one year earlier than expected. Mendes reminded them that City would need a 28m bid and told them to expect a bid within the next 24 hours. Mendes then boarded a Cessna to fly to Paris, where they spent the afternoon.
We don't know if he met with PSG when he arrived to discuss the possibility of that being an option should they decide to allow Mbappe to leave. They politely stated Ronaldo was not in their plans but then also said Mbappe wasn’t available and that no negotiations were being made with Real Madrid, even though they were already talking to the Spanish club.
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Mendes has been a top agent for over two decades and knows this well. He went to Paris to cover his bases. By Thursday, Mendes was already covering another base. He was in contact with Manchester City, waiting for them to make an official offer to Juventus.
The mood had changed by Friday lunchtime in Europe. Pep Guardiola, Man City manager, stated that Cristiano would decide where he wants to play and not Manchester City or me. It seems far away right now. It felt like a "take-it or leave it" decision. Perhaps the issue was about the amount Juventus wanted to pay. According to reports, City wasn't willing to offer more than 15 million. Perhaps it was Ronaldo's contract. He earned 31m after-tax at Juventus, or $66.5m, or nearly twice as much as anyone else in the Premier League.
A few miles away, Solskjaer opened his door in his prematch media duties. "I didn’t think Cristiano will leave Juventus. He knows that he can't leave Juventus if he wants... Let's see how things turn out with Cristiano.
Play 0:30 Solskjaer forecasted Cristiano Ronaldo's return to 2019 Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said that Cristiano Ronaldo would be returning when he spoke to children in April 2019.
You know that something is coming when a manager says this outlandishly, especially if it's Solskjaer. City informed the media within minutes that they had pulled out of the Ronaldo sweepstakes. And sure enough, United's official Twitter account did the same thing a few hours later.
It will take time to analyze and decide if it is the right move for Cristiano or United. But right now, it is hard to believe the details of how it happened.
The timing is everything. Why did Cristiano take so long to leave? It's not like Ronaldo wanted to leave Juventus because of something that happened in the last week. Mid-August didn't see a sudden decline in the club's financial position. Ronaldo did not suddenly meet Max Allegri after two seasons and say "Nah! I don't want to play for him!" It wasn't like Juve promised him a star-studded support cast. Ronaldo wanted to leave because he knew that there wouldn't be any significant newcomers, except Manuel Locatelli.
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It feels more like this was due to opportunities elsewhere than a desire for departure.
Real Madrid, Man City, PSG and Man United were the only viable options for him. Madrid wants Mbappe and PSG wants Mbappe to stay. Mendes was aware that Mbappe is a very talented player, but he cannot play for two teams at the same time. He also knew that Ronaldo might be an option for anyone who didn't manage to land Mbappe. Man City was also an option, after they missed Harry Kane.
Man United? They were there all along and the fact that they didn't move for him earlier, when it might have been more sensible, was not significant. Ego is part of football. Perhaps being able to pick a City target was a part. This is the second remarkable aspect of the story. Ronaldo is not the type of player you would expect to be shopped around. You expect him to be seduced by clubs and to engage in bidding wars to win his attention. Instead, Mendes went door to door.
He is one of the most important players in the history the game. Although he is only 36 years old, he scored 29 league goals last season, more than any other player (Robert Lewandowski with 41 for Bayern Munich and Lionel Messi with 30 for Barcelona). He was also the youngest of Europe's Big Five leagues. He won the Golden Boot at this year's European Championship six weeks earlier than he did six years ago. Everybody who has worked with him, even those who don’t like him, raves about his professionalism and fitness.
We are here. With his agent working 24 hours a day, he ends up moving as an afterthought.
This is not a criticism against Ronaldo. It is a sign that reality (of the post COVID variety), bites for many clubs. Agents who once managed to manipulate players and clubs as if they were tiny soldiers on a map are no longer able to do so.
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Paolo Condo, my colleague, suggested that perhaps the age of superstars and "player power" might be ending. Messi wanted to remain at Barcelona (and, supposedly they wanted him to stay there) but he wasn't able to get his way. Kane wanted to move to Man City from Tottenham. He didn't get it. Gianluigi Donnarumma desired a huge raise from Milan or a move towards Juventus. He didn't get it and now supports Keylor Navas at PSG. He earns little more than Milan offered him.
Now Ronaldo. Yes, he got his move at the end of the summer, after much effort by his agent.
It's possible that it's not a stretch to say we have moved on from the era where the individual superstar was omnipotent. Man City has a lot of great players, but no dominant superstar (except Guardiola), and nearly won the quadruple. Similar arguments can be made for Chelsea, who won the Champions League with a rotating team of frontmen, and Liverpool, which is difficult to pinpoint a single standout. Atletico Madrid won LaLiga with no A-listers carrying them. Antonio Conte would tell you Inter won Serie A because of the strength of the group (and his brilliant coaching).
What about PSG? They did have Mbappe and Neymar, but they didn't win any leagues. No matter what the case, and no matter how hard it was, Ronaldo is now able to write more chapters in Manchester United's history after 12 years.
