While Manchester United is already starting the pre-season and playing its first friendly matches (they thrashed Liverpool 4-0 in Erik Ten Hag's debut), the future of Cristiano Ronaldo still seems undecided. After having publicly stated his intention to leave the club if a good offer arrives, the Portuguese was absent from the English team's return to training alleging "family reasons". He has now joined, but from Saudi Arabia comes an astronomical offer to take over his services: 300 million.
CNN Portugal and TVI, two Portuguese television channels, confirm that an Arab team, as yet unidentified, has sent Manchester United an unprecedented offer. His goal would be to hire Cristiano Ronaldo for two seasons. In each of them, the player would receive 125 million euros. In other words, only from his sports activity would he obtain almost the same benefits as Leo Messi, the highest paid athlete in the world in 2022 according to Forbes magazine, from his sports performance and sponsorships off the field (130 million in total).
But the offer would not be limited to those 250 million euros. According to the Portuguese media, the Arab club would pay 30 million as a transfer to Manchester United and another 20 to intermediary agents. These figures would break the market as it is known until now. In any case, its realization seems completely impossible, since the footballer's claims are radically opposite.
Although it is true that Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave the Red Devils due to the low competitive level of the team, his poor performance last season and his absence in the next edition of the Champions League, his goal is to continue playing at the highest level. The most important thing is that the destination club participates in the main continental competition, since the Portuguese is not willing to miss out on his favorite tournament.
Since his discontent with his current situation and his interest in finding a way out became known, there have been several big European clubs with which he has been linked. Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Paris Saint-Germain or even FC Barcelona have appeared at some point as possible destinations for the all-time top scorer in the Champions League and Real Madrid. Some have rushed to deny that supposed interest and, for the moment, nothing is closed in Cristiano's case. Meanwhile, he begins to exercise with Manchester United while waiting for some plausible option.
