We know what Cristiano Ronaldo costs a club, less what he brings to a team

Iunsaleable, Cristiano Ronaldo? The 37-year-old superstar is doing everything to leave Manchester United, less than ten days before the end of the transfer window, but does not seem desired elsewhere. Absent from the resumption of training in early July, leaving the stadium at halftime of a preparation match, the Portuguese is working on his escape.

We can understand it. After finishing the previous season at a poor 6^e instead, his club, whose owners are more disavowed than ever by supporters, is plunged into a sporting and institutional crisis. Plagued by takeover rumours, he started his season with two defeats, including a crushing one against Brentford (4-0).

The Portuguese, however, is part of the problem. Returning with great fanfare, in the summer of 2021, in the team where he had become an exceptional player (2003-2009), he did not pull it up, and his honorable total of 24 goals in all competitions been his most modest since 2007. But Cristiano does not joke with modesty or with his statistics.

icon cost

He makes no secret of this motivation, since he is looking for a club competing in the Champions League, unlike the Red Devils, paid in the Europa League. At stake is his record for consecutive appearances in the competition (20) and his record for goals in it (141) – both threatened by Lionel Messi (18 and 125), younger than him by two years.

Model of ultimate sportsman attested by supernatural statistics for some, “CR7” is an inexhaustible source of irritation for others, who cannot stand his inelegance and his narcissism bordering on exhibitionism (our census indicates that his bare chest appears in almost 25% of the photos published on his Twitter account since the beginning of the year).

The list of clubs that would have refused his advances has grown: Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Naples, Atlético, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Borussia Dortmund… Rumor has it he is interested in Sporting – at least this return to Lisbon, in his training club, would it have a sentimental veneer. But, for now, United say they do not want him to leave.

The cost of the icon is in itself a problem. His future club should settle a transfer fee, the player still has a year of contract in Manchester, and offer an acceptable salary to one of the highest paid athletes in the world (he would receive 25 to 30 million euros net per year in England).

The fable of the sale of jerseys which would be enough to amortize the amount of the transfer of a star seems to have died. Luxury player, Cristiano Ronaldo would have been really approached only by a Saudi club ready to offer him a golden bridge, but no sporting perspective.

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