Cristiano Ronaldo stays with Man Utd
Ronaldo will stay at Old Trafford despite his attempts to leave United.
The summer transfer window has closed and Cristiano Ronaldo is still a Manchester United. He will remain at Old Trafford until at least January.
It has been two months, nine weeks, 61 days... a summer since Ronaldo (37) asked to leave Manchester United on 2 July, but time has run out. And despite being linked with almost every major club in Europe, no formal offer has come in for the Portuguese star, who will remain at Old Trafford for now.
Before then, Cristiano is expected to give an interview to reveal “the truth”, as he wrote on Instagram on 16 August. “I have a notebook and in the last few months, out of the 100 pieces of news I have written down, only 5 were correct,” he said.
Antony joins United
Either way, this is the end of a soap opera that has overshadowed the rest of the market, even with Cristiano having stayed in Manchester. Now we will have to see what role he plays in Erik ten Hag’s ‘new United’. The Old Trafford outfit have brought in Antony - another winger - for 100 million euros and in the first few games of the season have played Sancho, Rashford and Martial ahead of Ronaldo.
Ronaldo’s absence from the Red Devils’ tour of South-East Asia, where Ten Hag’s side performed at an outstanding level without Cristiano, only contributed to the deterioration of his image in a squad that has been completely overhauled by numerous arrivals and departures.
A summer of misunderstandings
When Cristiano announced his desire to leave United in order to play in the Champions League, three clubs initially appeared on his horizon. Bayern, Chelsea and Napoli were the most plausible options for the Portuguese player, but none of these alternatives materialised.
In the case of Bayern, the player’s age and the politics of the club’s board ended up being a major impediment to Cristiano’s arrival. “He is a fantastic player with a fantastic past,” explained Oliver Kahn, the Bavarian club president and legend said.
Chelsea strengthen squad
Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel was also offered the chance to bring Real Madrid’s all-time top scorer to Stamford Bridge, yet also declined, some say on the advice of his mentor, Rangnick. But the truth is that Todd Boehly, Chelsea’s new chairman and acting sporting director, hosted at least one meeting with Jorge Mendes, Cristiano’s agent.
Until the last minute, the Portuguese agent tried to close the transfer of Cristiano to Napoli, who did value the transfer of the veteran striker. In fact, up until 23:00 (UK time) no one ruled out Mendes being able to tie up the deal, given his huge reputation.
But Mendes didn’t get his way on this occasion and neither did Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Atlético Madrid, Borussia Dortmund, Roma, AC Milan, Inter Milan, PSG, Marseille, or Sporting CP, who were the other teams he was linked with.