Cristiano Ronaldo travelling for Manchester United talks
Robin Bairner
- 25 Jul 2022 20:07 BST
- 3 min read
Cristiano Ronaldo is flying back to England to hold talks with Manchester United over his future, The Athletic reports.
Ronaldo has missed the whole of the Red Devils’ pre-season thus far and was not present for their tour of Thailand and Australia, in which Erik ten Hag’s men made a positive impression by enjoying an undefeated run.
Officially, Ronaldo is missing because of family reasons, though these coincide with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner pushing to leave the club.
He has yet to meet Ten Hag, but it is reported that he will hold talks with the manager in the coming days as a solution to his future is sought by both parties.
It is not yet known if and when he will return to training.
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FootballTransfers understands that Ronaldo remains likely to remain at Man Utd, with major hurdles having to be crossed for any team to sign him. Atletico Madrid have been increasingly mentioned in recent days, but the prospects of a deal being concluded have been reduced by their fans protesting again a potential transfer, which would be difficult to achieve anyway for financial reasons.
Nevertheless, transfer market expert Ben Jacobs explained that the unlikely deal remains possible.
“Atletico Madrid is a move that Ronaldo would be very open to, despite his links with Real, and now his side has to sell it to them and then work out whether Manchester United will entertain a permanent sale or a loan move,” he stated.
The Athletic reports, meanwhile, that Manchester United do not see the player as being available for transfer and are planning for the 2022/23 season with him in mind. Furthermore, they are taking it as a “positive” sign that he is travelling back to speak to the management team.
With the Premier League season less than two weeks away from starting, Ronaldo faces a race against time to integrate himself into Ten Hag’s Manchester United side after a difficult summer.
