How Real Madrid ignored Ronaldo's calls to return

Carlo Garganese

• 11 Jan 2023 17:45 GMT
• 3 min read

Real Madrid ignored several calls from Jorge Mendes for Cristiano Ronaldo to return to the club last summer.

That is according to The Athletic, which reports that Ronaldo’s agent Mendes attempted to call Madrid “several times” in an attempt to broker a return to the Santiago Bernabeu.

However, Mendes didn’t even manage to sit down and pitch a deal as Madrid simply ignored his calls.

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The attempt to take Ronaldo back to Madrid was not following the rescission of his contract by Man Utd in November, but actually during the summer transfer window.

Ronaldo issued a transfer request to quit Man Utd at the start of July.

The 37-year-old cited his desire to join a club that was in the Champions League and could challenge for major trophies.

His agent Mendes offered him out to numerous clubs around Europe, including - according to The Athletic - Chelsea, Bayern and Real Madrid without finding a taker.

Ronaldo thus ended up staying at Man Utd and he was involved in a number of controversies and bust-ups with manager Erik ten Hag in the first half of the campaign.

Ronaldo released by Man Utd

This culminated in Ronaldo giving a controversial interview to Piers Morgan just before the World Cup in which he slammed Ten Hag, Man Utd’s owners and a number of other club legends.

Man Utd subsequently released Ronaldo from his contract before the World Cup began on November 20.

The Portuguese star attempted to find a top European club to join on a free transfer once Portugal were eliminated in the quarter-final stage by Morocco.

However, with no suitable offers, he opted to join Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia instead in a huge money-making deal.

Ronaldo turns 38 next month and it is now widely considered that his career at the top level is over.