Juventus: Ranking Cristiano Ronaldo’s potential destinations

The brouhaha around Cristiano Ronaldo‘s future at Juventus has been going on for months. After Juventus got knocked out of the Champions League in the 2019-20 season under Maurizio Sarri, the talks of Ronaldo departing Juve ignited. The clamours gathered the pace after Juve getting kicked out of the same competition — yet again at the round of 16 — but this time under the command of Andrea Pirlo.

Pirlo does not hold the same power anymore as he was shown the exit door at the Bianconeri despite providing the club with a Supercoppa Italiana and a Coppa Italia title in his first year as the manager of the Old Lady. The departure of the long-haired gaffer was followed by the return of Massimiliano Allegri to the managerial throne at Juventus. With that, the exit talks of Cristiano Ronaldo have now reached another level.

Allegri is there to get Juventus back to the pinnacle of Italian and apparently European football. He doesn’t seem bothered about the future of Ronaldo. Reports believe that the Juve hierarchy is open to letting the five-time Ballon d’Or winner leave this summer, with Allegri reportedly considering rebuilding the spine of the club around the talented youngsters.

That being said, rumours have linked Cristiano Ronaldo to a chunk of financially sustainable European sides, who can afford the Portuguese’s exorbitant expenses. Let’s rank them, in the order of being favourites, one after another.

5. Sporting CP

There is nothing to hide. If you are one supporting the fantastic Sporting CP since childhood and yearning for Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to his youth club since the day he left the club for Manchester United in 2003, you might be disappointed after learning that Ronaldo will not re-join Sporting, not at least this summer. And it is that simple and blatant.

The talks of Cristiano Ronaldo returning to his homeland came out of the blue, really. But it was not a daily paper story. Ronaldo’s mother, Dolores Aveiro, reacted to his son’s possible departure from Juventus by saying she would do anything to bring him back home. She commented:

"“I’ll talk to him to bring him back. Next year he will play in Alvalade [Sporting’s stadium].”"

After the quotes went viral and people started comprehending the situation differently, Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, had to come in front of the camera and rule out what could have been Ronaldo’s fairytale return to his boyhood club Sporting Lisbon. Speaking to Record, a Portuguese outlet, Mendes responded:

"“Cristiano is proud of the title won by Sporting, in fact, as he has publicly demonstrated. But at the moment his career plans do not go through Portugal’."

Given the financial muscle of the newly-crowned Liga NOS champions, they might have to sell half of the squad to afford the gigantic wages of Cristiano Ronaldo whatsoever. And if the truth is to be told, Sporting’s focus must not be on bringing Cristiano Ronaldo back but producing a new one for the future generation.