Cristiano Ronaldo arrived to Manchester United’s Carrington training complex on Tuesday, accompanied by his agent, Jorge Mendes, before leaving six hours later, his future uncertain.
When Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Manchester United in 2021, turning down an offer from Manchester City and Pep Guardiola to return to the Theatre of Dreams after a 12-year absence, was assumed that the Premier League title would follow him.
United had rebuilt under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, and Ronaldo was the final piece of an expensively-assembled jigsaw that put United firmly in ‘win-now’ mode. A title fight with Manchester City and Liverpool was predicted. Instead, United stumbled. Badly.
Ronaldo scored 18 Premier League goals and 24 in 38 appearances across all competitions, but the club fell short of expectations. Solskjaer did not make it to December, and under interim manager Ralf Rangnick, United ended sixth, outside the Champions League spots, with a goal difference of zero, 35 points behind champions Manchester City.
In May 7, when United were ruthlessly torn apart by Graham Potter’s clever outfit on Ronaldo’s penultimate appearance of the 2021-22 season, he ultimately decided he wanted to leave. Since he was a teenager, the Portuguese has not been out of the Champions League, the competition that defines him more than any other.
After a tumultuous season, made all the more painful by the fact that his team floundered and trailed badly behind the side he could have joined instead, he quickly made it clear to his camp that he had no intention of leaving Europe’s premier club competition behind now, at the age of 37 and with his career nearing the end.
However, finding a bidder prepared to take on Ronaldo and all that entails – not just financially – has proven considerably more difficult than his agent, Jorge Mendes, anticipated.
Mendes spoke with new Chelsea owner Todd Boehly in June, and a transfer to Stamford Bridge was discussed. But the Blues’ interest never progressed beyond that. There was little interest in Italy, Atletico Madrid has ruled out a transfer, calling it “practically impossible,” and old club Real Madrid, the reigning European champions, do not want him back after seeing their own veteran No.9, Karim Benzema, blossom from Ronaldo’s long-time sidekick into this year’s sure-fire Ballon d’Or winner.
Despite losing Robert Lewandowski, Bayern Munich decided against signing Cristiano Ronaldo: “As highly as I regard Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the greatest, a transfer would not be a fit with our culture,” Bayern CEO Oliver Kahn told German magazine Kicker.
United, for their part, have officially said that they have no intention of releasing Ronaldo from his contract and want him to remain a member of new manager Erik ten Hag’s squad in 2022-23. Ten Hag has stated repeatedly that he wants Ronaldo on his team.
Despite the fact that the Dutchman has been putting his team through their paces on the club’s pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia, Ronaldo has remained in Portugal, citing family obligations.
On Monday morning, as Ten Hag prepped for his players’ return to Carrington on Tuesday, there was still question over Ronaldo’s availability. By Monday afternoon, United had responded, stating that he and Mendes will be at the club’s training facility the next morning for talks with United officials about his future. He boarded a private airplane back to England on Monday evening.
Ronaldo and Mendes arrived together shortly before 11 a.m., stopping briefly on their way through security to sign autographs before proceeding inside.
Having his most trusted counsel present indicates that Ronaldo’s intention to go has not changed, despite the aforementioned paucity of possibilities across Europe. However, neither he nor Mendes, who has made a profitable career out of bending the transfer market to his will, will be deterred.
Ferguson arrived barely five minutes after they arrived, via the back entrance at Carrington. Last August, he persuaded Ronaldo to abandon a move to City in favor of returning to United, calling the Portuguese himself at the 11th hour to seal an Old Trafford reunion.
According to United, Fergie, 80, was at Carrington for a board meeting with chief executive Richard Arnold, football director John Murtough, the club’s former chief executive David Gill, and Bryan Robson. Arnold and Murtough were due to meet with Mendes, and it would be stupid to believe Ferguson was not involved in some way, either with Ronaldo or with the agency he once thought was the greatest in the world.
Indeed, United’s management believed he could utilize his persuasion skills to persuade Ronaldo to stay, as he did in 2008 when he played hardball and held Ronaldo at Real Madrid for a year longer than the Portuguese desired.
Ronaldo eventually left the training facility shortly before 5 p.m., via the same rear exit via which Fergie had arrived; Mendes had left long before, armed with the club’s mandate for his biggest and most precious client.
However, worries about Ronaldo’s future and where he will play football in 2022-23 persist. It has already dominated United’s preseason and, if it continues, will cloud their Premier League opener, which, unfortunately, will be against Brighton.