Ancelotti has his say on Ronaldo’s potential return to Real Madrid

Martin Macdonald

• 2 Jun 2021 20:38 BST
• 4 min read

Carlo Ancelotti has refused to say whether or not he would welcome a return to Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo.

Following a disappointing 2020/21 season in which Real Madrid finished second in La Liga and failed to win a major trophy, Zinedine Zidane left his role as head coach last week.

The Frenchman left of his own accord, releasing a statement to the Madrid fans indicating that the main reason he left is that he did not have the full trust of the board to complete a squad rebuild.

READ MORE: Ancelotti provides major update on the Real Madrid futures of Ramos and Bale

After the likes of Massimilano Allegri, Raul and Joachim Low were considered, president Florentino Perez went back to what he knows with the recruitment of Ancelotti, who was in charge at the Santiago Bernabeu between 2013 and 2015.

The Italian would guide Real Madrid to their holy grail of ‘La Decima’ – their 10th European Cup.

Ronaldo, meanwhile, has been busy scoring goals for Juventus since his big-money move to Turin. Although he has found the back of the net on a regular basis and scored 36 goals this past campaign, he was unable to help the Bianconeri from surrendering Serie A to Inter, while they were eliminated at the Champions League last 16 stage by Porto.

With Juventus not in a good shape financially, too, there has been suggestions the club could look to move Ronaldo on as he reportedly earns as much as the majority of the rest of the squad combined.

Should he leave, a return to Real Madrid or Manchester United or a move to Paris Saint-Germain has been mentioned.

Ronaldo return at Real Madrid?

In his first press conference since returning as Real Madrid head coach, Ancelotti was asked about Ronaldo’s future, but the former Everton boss was democratic in his response.

“I have a lot of affection for Cristiano, but I do not like to talk about players who are at another club,” Ancelotti said.

“He has a contract with Juventus. It does seem correct to me [to talk about him]. He is still doing very well, scoring a lot of goals.

“An Italian journalist asked me if it was the end of Cristiano‘s career. I said yes. He has scored 30 when he usually scores 50, so he is slowing down.”