De Gea to REJECT £9m pay cut as Ronaldo rule kicks in at Man Utd

Robin Bairner

• 15 Apr 2023 22:38 BST
• 3 min read

David de Gea will turn down Manchester United’s contract offer to him, with the Old Trafford side having presented him with new terms that represent a £9 million per year pay cut.

The Sun reports that the Spain international goalkeeper has been invited to slash his wage to remain at Old Trafford, with manager Erik ten Hag seemingly unconvinced that he is a long-term solution to the No.1 role.

De Gea is presently Manchester United’s top earner at £375,000 per week, but out of contract in the summer, the Red Devils are asking him to accept a deal in the region of half of that. The report states that he has been offered a basic wage of £200,000 per week.

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However, it is not all bad news for De Gea, with Man Utd apparently willing to load his offer up with bonuses.

The goalkeeper’s management, though, believe that the cut he has been offered represents too great a slide down the club’s wage structure.

Nevertheless, there remains optimism from both sides that De Gea will be able to agree a new three-year deal.

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De Gea victim of the ‘Ronaldo rule’

De Gea is set to be the first high-profile victim of Manchester United’s so-called ‘Ronaldo rule’.

Although not a hard-and-fast law, the club have indicated that they do not want a repeat of the situation that saw Cristiano Ronaldo earn significantly more than their team-mates during his second stint at the club. This has resulted in Man Utd putting in a self-imposed salary cap of a notional £200,000 per week.

The club’s reasoning appears to be that it can give one player too much influence behind the scenes, with Ronaldo and Ten Hag involved in a power struggle in the latter days of the striker’s second spell at Old Trafford.

Although the manager ultimately won that battle, it was an ugly event for all involved, with Ronaldo released to move to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.