Manchester City refuse to pay Juventus’ asking price for Cristiano Ronaldo
The Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga took another turn on Tuesday night when it was revealed that the player was trying to engineer a move to Manchester City. However, the Cityzens are refusing to pay Juventus’ £21m asking price.
The 36-year-old specifically requested to start on the bench for Juve’s Serie A opener at Udinese on Sunday as he was hopeful of finding a solution over his future before the transfer window shuts. Ronaldo’s contract in Turin expires next summer.
L’Equipe revealed that Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, is currently in Manchester attempting to engineer a swap deal between City and Juve that’d see Ronaldo and Bernardo Silva move in opposite directions.
The Portuguese great has reportedly spoken to his compatriots at City, including Ruben Dias and Joao Cancelo, over a possible move and is confident that a deal can be struck before the deadline.
The sticking point
However, Juventus are supposedly holding out for a £21m fee for Ronaldo this summer and, according to various sources including 90min, this is an asking price City are refusing to pay.
The Times also reports that the Manchester club are reluctant to pursue a move for the 36-year-old considering his mammoth £510,000-a-week deal at Juve.
The Cityzens are still keen on bringing wantaway Tottenham striker Harry Kane to the club in what will undoubtedly be a record-breaking deal. However, it may take a bid surplus of £150m to get the hard-nosed Daniel Levy to budge with such a short amount of time remaining in the transfer window.
What about PSG?
The free-spending, galactico-constructing Paris Saint-Germain had emerged as a potential destination for Ronaldo earlier this summer, with some reports suggesting that they’ll make their move once Kylian Mbappe departs.
On Tuesday night, Real Madrid finally submitted a bid for the generational Frenchman, albeit one that was refused by Les Parisiens. However, with Real finally showing some intent in their Mbappe pursuit, the possibility of the Frenchman leaving Paris this summer looks a little more likely than it did a week ago. Thus, could there be an avenue for Ronaldo to team up with Lionel Messi at PSG?
Gianluca Di Marzio doesn’t believe so. The Sky Italy reporter understands that the French giants aren’t in the running, even if Mbappe leaves for Spain this summer.
He believes that Man City are the only club that could possibly sign Ronaldo in the current window, but adds that any move will be complicated. The Premier League champions will likely have to sell Raheem Sterling before pursuing the Juventus forward. Pep Guardiola is also reluctant to include Gabriel Jesus in a potential swap deal.