Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich director Oliver Kahn has confirmed that the club will not be going for Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo, 37, had last week hit the buzzer alerting the United top brass that he is intent on leaving the club this summer, citing his desire to continue pursuing his Champions League ambitions. The club’s center forward was due to hold crisis talks with new head coach Erik ten Hag on Monday, but his return to pre-season training was delayed supposedly for family reasons and has now also taken leave with no indications as to when he will be back.
In the meanwhile United chiefs are still trumpeting the tune that the five-time Ballon d’Or winner will remain at Old Trafford until his contract expires next year despite no lack of clubs having already shown keen interest in signing him.
Bayern Munich are one such club rumored to be interested but Kahn has taken off the cover on that one and admitted that Ronaldo would not be a suitable fit for the squad, commenting to German outlet Kicker: “As much as I appreciate Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the greatest players, a move would not fit into our philosophy.”
Apparently it was Bayern legend Lothar Matthaus who had previously sounded his former club to bring Ronaldo to the Allianz Arena as a replacement for Robert Lewandowski, who is set to leave this summer.
With the Bundesliga juggernauts rling themselves out of the chase, the Portugal captain is now expecting Chelsea to lead the transfer race as the new Blues chairman Todd Boehly is apparently most keen to make the striker his marquee signing. However it is learnt that head coach has yet to nod his approval as he is said to have some other candidates in mind.
Interestingly, Barcelona are also said to be interested in an unexpected swoop for the former Real Madrid striker with Joan Laporta recently confirming that he had indeed talked with Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes to discuss a potential deal.
He said: “I had dinner on Monday with Jorge Mendes and we talked about the market in general.
“Cristiano? I’m not going to talk about the players who came out of the meeting, but it’s always interesting to know how some names are on the market.
“I’m not going to talk about players in one way or another, it could be misunderstood.
“It doesn’t contribute anything to the interests of Barca. We have to respect the players who have contracts with other teams.”