PSG to tempt Cristiano Ronaldo
President Al Khelaifi has a dream of lining up a strike force in Paris of Cristiano, Neymar and Mbappé, and will bring the Real Madrid star's salary in line with Lionel Messi.
The words that came out of Cristiano Ronaldo's mouth on Kiev's Olympic Stadium pitch ("It's been great being at Real Madrid...I'll speak in the next few days") have not fallen on deaf ears among the greats of Europe. The first to react has been PSG. The French giants want Los Blancos' number seven and have already informed Madrid of their wish.
Neymar, Mbappé...and Cristiano
The Ligue 1 champions dream of pitting a front three of Cristiano, Neymar and Mbappé against the best of the rest, and will offer the Portugal star a net salary of 45 million euros, putting him alongside eternal rival, Barcelona's Lionel Messi.
However, that longing of President Al Khelaifi has two large obstacles. On the one hand, even if Madrid were to consider selling their prized asset, it would have to serve as the opening of the door to Neymar moving in the opposite direction towards the Bernabéu, thus lowering the transfer value significantly of the Brazilian. Cristiano has a release clause of 1,000,000,000 in his current contract, but the price that PSG is willing to pay would not exceed 150 million.
PSG balancing the books
The other problem for the French club in signing Cristiano is the ongoing investigation of Uefa's Financial Control Committee, in the wake of possible financial fraud in their sponsorship dealings. A sanction like the one the club received in 2014 would greatly reduce their transfer market muscle, although names of the ilk of Cavani, Guedes and Di Maria are already on the exit ramp. They will bring in some decent revenue but if a Cristiano purchase is viable, Al Khelaifi will need to say goodbye to further members of the squad.
