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Football

30th Sep 2018

Three clubs tried to sign Cristiano Ronaldo before summer move to Juventus

Another Italian club was the first to make an approach

Darragh Murphy

It comes as no surprise that Cristiano Ronaldo was in high demand in the summer.

After making his desire to leave Real Madrid clear, the interest of several clubs was piqued before the Portuguese superstar eventually ended up at Juventus.

Ronaldo apparently told Real that he wanted to leave months before his £99 million move to Juventus was sealed and the player’s agent, Jorge Mendes, was tasked with finding his client the best possible destination.

The desire to bring an end to his nine-year spell at the Santiago Bernabeu stemmed from Ronaldo’s frustration at being offered a new contract which was not up to the level of Lionel Messi’s at Barcelona.

So Ronaldo decided to leave.

And according to a report in El Mundo, three clubs made an approach for Real’s top scorer before Juventus eventually got their man.

AC Milan were the first to come calling, as translated by MARCA, but Ronaldo turned down the chance to move to the San Siro because he was not confident of Milan’s ability to launch a title bid after recent domestic shortcomings.

Ronaldo’s former club Manchester United then made a legitimate offer to Real, according to the report, but the fee was not up to scratch.

Paris Saint-Germain were next up but they were rather demanding with their approach as they insisted on the transfer taking place on transfer deadline day so that the selling club would not have time to respond with an offer for either Kylian Mbappe or Neymar.

Ronaldo didn’t like the sounds of leaving it that late so he then specifically asked whether Juventus would be interested, which they clearly were.

The 33-year-old had a relatively slow start to life in Turin but he’s firing on all cylinders now and no player in Serie A has contributed to more goals this term than Ronaldo, who has three goals and four assists in his seven games so far.