Cristiano Ronaldo to Atletico Madrid: How a transfer could happen
Ben Jacobs
- 18 Aug 2022 10:40 BST
- 3 min read
Cristiano Ronaldo’s future at Manchester United remains in the balance, with Atletico Madrid one of the teams most closely linked with a transfer. CBS Sports reporter Ben Jacobs writes for FootballTransfers that a deal would be complicated – but not entirely impossible.
Ronaldo doesn’t have any possibilities in terms of clubs who have said they’ll make a bid for him in the next two weeks. There’s always a chance that a club that’s ruled out Ronaldo before comes back in because maybe they miss out on another target or they U-turn on their position.
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Atleti have the appetite to sign Ronaldo
Atleti have always denied publicly that they want Ronaldo. Diego Simeone was asked if he wanted him and he replied by smiling and saying: “We’ve got a game tomorrow.” It wasn’t a denial, it was just a deflection.
What we know from the Atleti end is that there’s an appetite in the sense that Simeone likes Cristiano Ronaldo but the club have always intimated off record that it’s financially impossible. We’d need to see a lot of movement at Atleti’s end first in terms of outgoings.
It would also take a massive pay cut from Ronaldo. My understanding has always been that Ronaldo would be prepared to take a 30% pay cut. Jorge Mendes ahs been telling suitors this. But from the Atleti point of view, it would have to be 50-60% before they would be able to make the maths work – and they would also need outgoings.
Until those outgoings happen, we don’t know whether they would genuinely come in. A loan might be easier for them than a permanent deal.
Transfer looks unlikelyIt wouldn’t be unthinkable between now and when the window closes that a club like Atelti try their luck and ask for a loan because they’re aware that it’s problematic at the moment with Ronaldo staying at the football club. But it’s still not looking likely.
But when we get to those desperation hours of the window, who knows? Someone could just try their luck with an offer to Manchester United for Ronaldo to test their not-for-sale stance.
But the truth is that as we head into the final two weeks of the window, there still has to be an offer. And right now, no one has put down a concrete offer for Cristiano Ronaldo, permanent or loan.
