Juventus: The case for keeping Cristiano Ronaldo next season
Cristiano Ronaldo will have one year left on his contract at the end of the 2020-2021 Serie A season, which has been a difficult campaign for Juventus thus far. After tumbling out of the Champions League during the Round of 16 for a second straight year, Juve are sliding in the title race, having just lost 1-0 to relegation candidates Benevento.
But Ronaldo himself has been excellent, scoring nearly one goal per game in Serie A. While it would be simplistic to state that he has carried the team, Ronaldo has been by far Juve’s best player, and his importance has been magnified with Paulo Dybala not available for much of the season. Aside from Federico Chiesa, Ronaldo has been the only true, consistent star on Juve. He’s had his off nights, such as both legs against Porto, but, by and large, he has remained at least one of the top five players on this planet.
Juve’s struggles have caused the rumor mill to swirl regarding Ronaldo’s future, and Diario AS reporter Manu Sainz recently wrote that the No. 7 would like a dream return to the Santiago Bernabeu this summer.
Ronaldo has so much power that, at the end of the day, the decision is his. But Juventus hold a lot of power, too, since they are a big club and have Ronaldo under contract for one more year. Everything coming out of Turin states that Juventus will keep the 36-year-old around for the final year of his deal. That’s despite some analysts stating that the club would be better off dropping his salary and using that money to further the rebuild project.
Cristiano Ronaldo has become essential to Juventus now
Yet it seems like, in the eyes of Juventus, Ronaldo is essential to this project. He is the proven superstar goal-scorer whom the project is built around. The idea is for players like Federico Chiesa, Dejan Kulusevski, Weston McKennie, and whoever else joins this next summer window to benefit from the presence of Ronaldo on the pitch. And maybe they’ll pick up some training approaches and tactical knowledge from the forward, too. One last thing. Remember how embarrassing Juve’s exit to Porto was? Notice how the majority of the blame and criticism was absorbed by Ronaldo. That’s a small, but likely significant, benefit to the young players.
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The most compelling reasons for keeping Ronaldo, though, purely deal with the team’s standing. Saving about 30 million euros per year on Ronaldo’s salary sounds nice, but Ronaldo is probably worth more money to Juve. He is their main attraction star, and they don’t have anyone near him in terms of star power. Ronaldo gives Juve a presence on social media and in marketing that other players cannot, and that might matter more to the club than anything else.
Finally, if Juventus cut ties with Ronaldo, they probably aren’t going to get close to market value for him in this economy. If they make it clear they are selling, they have no leverage.
Ronaldo will push for one of two clubs – Real Madrid most likely, PSG as a backup plan maybe – and those clubs will know Juve have no choice. With his wages and his age, are they really going to get a return that matches the drop-off in quality from losing him? Can they find an affordable goal-scorer to replace him? I’ll tell you what, Edin Dzeko and Gianluca Scamacca won’t be the answers there.
So really, Juve are going to have to find a way to succeed with this Ronaldo project for at least one more year, maybe two, depending on what his future plans are. For now, they have to hold onto Ronaldo. Whatever he wants is up to him, but as far as what Juventus control, they pretty much have to keep him. Their team is in such a situation that they would be hurt significantly if they lost him, and they would not be able to get a replacement. They aren’t going to be signing Kylian Mbappe or Erling Haaland, sadly.
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The best thing Juve can do is shave off the salary elsewhere, getting rid of players like Aaron Ramsey and Alex Sandro who can no longer get it done. Then, they can use that money to sign younger upgrades or affordable players nearing their prime, rather than trying to sell their most proven attacker for comparative pennies on the dollar.