Ronaldo to leave Man Utd in January for disciplinary reasons: The latest

FT Desk

• 8 Nov 2022 14:00 GMT
• 3 min read

Cristiano Ronaldo will leave Manchester United in January. That is the expectation of club bosses inside Old Trafford, according to Sky Germany.

Journalist Florian Pettenberg reports that Manchester United directors have made the decision that Ronaldo has to go during the January transfer window in order to strengthen the position of Erik ten Hag.

Club bosses also want to bring “more tranquillity” to the Man Utd dressing room following a string of controversial incidents involving Ronaldo this season.

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Pettenberg says that a return to Ronaldo’s first club Sporting Lisbon is a possibility.

Man Utd, meanwhile, have already begun searching for successors – with Bayern Munich’s Erik Choupo-Moting among them.

Ronaldo’s controversies this season

The decision to sell Ronaldo comes due to his poor professionalism that has affected the rest of the squad and the image of the club.

The problems started before pre-season when Ronaldo put in a transfer request to leave the club.

He wanted to join a club that was in the Champions League and could challenge for major trophies. His agent Jorge Mendes offered him out to numerous clubs around Europe, without finding a taker.

Ronaldo chose not to go on tour with Man Utd during the summer, citing family reasons.

He did not begin training again until the last week of pre-season, playing just one friendly match against Rayo Vallecano. He caused controversy during that game by leaving Old Trafford before the match had finished.

His attitude and body language were also called into question during the first two Premier League matches of the season, a 2-1 home defeat to Brighton and 4-0 loss at Brentford.

At full-time against Brentford he was filmed storming off down the tunnel and not acknowledging manager Ten Hag at full-time.

He then caused more controversy last month by refusing to come on as a substitute in the win over Tottenham, instead walking down the tunnel before the game was over.

He was dropped from the squad for the following game against Chelsea as a result.

Ronaldo has been reintegrated into the first team in the last few games, but his performances on the pitch have been poor and he has scored just three goals in all competitions this season.

It now seems inevitable he will leave Man Utd in January.