Madre mia! Holy baloney! Crikey!
Believe it or not but Cristiano Ronaldo has actually been sensationally offered to Barcelona for a gem of a blockbuster return to La Liga. That mouth-watering news comes direct from Spanish football expert Guillem Balague.
Ronaldo has enjoyed another dominant season for Juventus, winning a second Serie A title for the Italian giants. However, the Champions League is the coveted trophy and the prized possession the Italian side fancied most and they dismally crashed out of the last 16 stage to Lyon last week.
Ronaldo’s disappointment was evident despite valiantly calling on his team-mates to bounce back next season, with the biggest consequence of Juventus’ exit being the immediate sacking of Maurizio Sarri and the appointment of inexperienced Andrea Pirlo as his replacement.
Subsequent to the crashing out of Juventus in the Champions League, the grapevine has been abuzz with news of the potential sale of Ronaldo, with reports in France linking the Portuguese superstar with Paris Saint-Germain.
However, the intriguing bit is that Balague has claimed Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes has been instructed to find a new club for the player and Barcelona were among the teams approached. This has given rise to the incredulous prospect of Ronaldo and Lionel Messi being brough together to play as a duo for the first time in their careers.
“The reason why Cristiano Ronaldo has been linked to PSG is not so much that PSG are thinking of getting him, it is because Jorge Mendes has been given instructions to find a team for Ronaldo,” Balague told BBC Radio 5 Live.
“We’ve seen this in the last six months, he was linked to Real Madrid.
“They said no chance, he’s not coming back.
“And there’s been talks about the MLS because Juventus want to get rid of that wage.
“It is as drastic as that. He’s been offered everywhere, including Barcelona.
“I’m not sure if they can get rid of him easily [because] with the kind of money he still earns – 23million euros net – that he was earning at Real Madrid and I think he equalled those wages when he went to Juventus.
“Who is going to pay that kind of money?”
Of course some team somewhere in the rarefied atmosphere at the highest echelons of football would dole out the mullahs for an undeniable megastar like the great Cristiano or the great magician Messi – but the mouth-watering prospect of a link-up between football’s greatest warriors of the decade is something that will set tongues excitedly wagging for at least the next few decades, to say the least!
Well, like they say in football – NEVER SAY NEVER.
Credit: Football Tribe Malaysia
