Napoli say they wanted to build a young team amid Ronaldo links
Karan Tejwani
- 9 Sept 2022 10:25 BST
- 3 min read
Cristiano Ronaldo wished to leave Manchester United throughout the summer transfer window, but a move never materialized and he stayed at Old Trafford.
The Portuguese forward wanted to be at a club where he could play regular Champions League football and compete for trophies, something he felt wasn’t possible at Manchester United.
Clubs such as Bayern Munich, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain rejected the opportunity to sign Ronaldo, citing age, tactical fit or the high cost of the operation as their reasons behind the refusal.
Napoli emerged as a late contender for Ronaldo’s signature, with a swap deal proposed as Victor Osimhen would go the other way, but even that didn’t work out as planned before the transfer deadline.
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There was a suggestion that agent Jorge Mendes was working on a deal late in the window that would see Ronaldo go to Naples and Osimhen to Manchester.
The Nigerian forward was even open to the idea of moving to Old Trafford, but any such operation that late in the window would’ve been difficult to complete considering the big sums of money involved.
According to reports, Napoli President Aurelio Di Laurentiis is a big fan of Ronaldo and wanted to bring in a superstar name to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona for the season.
The club’s Sporting Director, Cristiano Giuntoli, thought differently, though, and admitted that Napoli’s interest wasn’t entirely authentic when it came to Ronaldo’s potential signing.
Cristiano Ronaldo has the most appearances (183) and goals (140) in Champions League history.
For the first time in his career, he's playing in the Europa League 😬 pic.twitter.com/lVeplj7TUX— B/R Football (@brfootball) September 8, 2022
He told Corriere dello Sport in an interview: “During the transfer market we pretend to chat with everyone, and sometimes we do it for real. But we wanted to invest in a young team.”
Ronaldo is now 37 and could still earn a move in the January transfer window, but even that seems unlikely, meaning he will likely have to spend the rest of the campaign at Old Trafford.
He is now in the final year of his contract at Manchester United having signed a two-year deal in 2021, but the club have the option to extend his stay for a further year.
