In the August transfer window, Manchester United beat their neighbors Man City to sign Cristiano Ronaldo.
Popular sports journalist, Fabrizio Romano who was following up on the transfer keenly, has recently come out to explain how the transfer came about.
Fabrizio on November 6, through CBS Sports Golazo narrated how Cristiano came to leave Juventus and despite being linked to Manchester City he ended up at Manchester United.
The outspoken journalist begins by explaining the contract situation between Ronaldo and Juventus when he joined Juventus.
He explains that when Ronaldo signed with the Italian team more than three years ago the message was that the target was to win the Champions League.
Romano further explained that Juventus had a plan of making big signings every summer transfer window as they began with Cristiano then signed Matthijs de Ligt for 75 million Euros.
“Juventus plan after signing de Ligt was to sign Paul Pogba but due to financial constraints brought about by covid it was difficult for them to sign the United midfielder at this point is where the Italian team began to struggle” Fabrizio noted.
Fabrizio notes that the struggles that Juventus started to experience in the league was what led to Ronaldo’s future considerations.
Despite Juventus bringing back Allegri, the manager who had previous success with the club, a move seen as a strong message to show Ronaldo that they want to win, the prolific striker was not fully convinced about the team.
The problem was not about the manager, Ronaldo was convinced that the current Juventus team was not prepared to compete and to win the Champions League immediately” Fabrizio noted.
Fabrizo highlighted that the situation between Ronaldo and Juventus became worse on the opening of the Serie A match of Juventus with Udinese where Cristiano asked to be put on the bench instead of starting.
“It’s a Sunday and during the night Cristiano Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, opens talks with Manchester City. The only club that was really interested in Cristiano Ronaldo was Manchester City," Fabrizio stated.
This was an unexpected approach as Ronaldo was a legend at Manchester United, who are City’s rivals in Manchester.
“Manchester City were offering him a one-year contract, and he was asking for a two-year deal and about the salary everything was not 100 percent agreed,” Fabrizio noted.
Fabrizio notes that the transfer had challenges as part of the Manchester City board members were not 100 percent convinced about the signing as it was not in the style of City to sign a player of Ronaldo’s age.
“At this point Manchester United are not in the race to sign Ronaldo,” Fabrizio points out.
According to Fabrizio Manchester City had no intention to pay one single Euro to Juventus as fee to sign Ronaldo, however Juventus wanted either Gabriel Jesus or 25 million Euros.
Due to the push and pull between Manchester City and Juventus, Ronaldo's agent on Wednesday went on and began talks with United.
“In 10 minutes, everything changes for Manchester United. They were thinking of signing a new midfielder but when they knew about the opportunity of hijacking Cristiano Ronaldo deal with Manchester City and bringing Ronaldo home. The deal was too good to leave,” Fabrizio stated.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær, the manager, immediately says yes. The board immediately accepted and initiated talks with Ronaldo.
Bruno Fernandes calls Ronaldo directly and informs him about the new atmosphere at United with their latest signings of Varane and Sancho.
“Everything happened within 24 hours, as Ronaldo on that morningwent to training at Juventus, but he iswas working with the team. He talked with Allegri and notified him of his exit,” Fabrizio highlighted.
United during that night were preparing Ronaldo’s contract with United sending their offer the following money.
“It was 15 million Euros, plus 8 million Euro add-ons paid in five years,” Fabrizio stated.
“During the afternoon, Cristiano received the contract and decided to accept the contact. He called Bruno and everything was in place,”
Two days before, he was close to joining Manchester City, two days after, he joined Manchester United in a shocking comeback for the fanbase in what would be termed as a crazy transfer period.