Cristiano Ronaldo who is arguably the greatest striker of all time is willing to take a huge wage drop in order to facilitate a possible move to Manchester City, The Columnist Ng has learned.
Despite having a year left on his current deal with Juventus, the 36-year-old decided earlier this summer he felt he should leave Turin.
Ronaldo and his agent Jorge Mendes who is also a Portuguese, both agreed a new club was needed.
However, they wanted to join a club that would likely challenge for the Champions League, which limited the options.
According to reports, Mendes is working very hard to seal a deal for Ronaldo and he approached Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City earlier this month, but both told him they were not interested.
PSG’s stance remains unchanged, despite a possible sale of Kylian Mbappe to Spanish giants, Real Madrid but things are different with City – who only had eyes for Harry Kane up until recently when it became clear he wouldn’t leave Tottenham.
Mendes approached City numerous times in the last week, knowing they needed a striker, to take another look at Ronaldo as an option.
Despite hesitation, it is believed City have relented somewhat to the extent they are listening to the prospective deal – but there are major hurdles.
Ronaldo’s current wage packet after tax is around £600,000-a-week and City made it clear they would not be willing to make him the highest paid player in the Premier League and would not want him to be their highest paid player – that currently being Kevin De Bruyne who just penned a deal worth around £380,000-a-week.
Sources close to Juventus have confirmed to the press that they have been left “disappointed’ by Ronaldo’s stance” and, although accepting of it, they will not allow him to leave unless it is on their terms – which means they need to sell him and recoup some money in order to satisfy tax issues that could emerge with his departure.
It has also been gathered that City do not want to pay any money for Ronaldo and have made that clear to Mendes – which is another reason that a possible pay packet for the Portuguese superstar could be as little as £250,000-a-week.
Mendes believes that if Ronaldo signed a two-year deal, the money City save from the reduced terms would then allow them to give Juventus the cash they are looking for to conclude a deal.
