Juventus are considering cutting ties with forward Cristiano Ronaldo next summer amid fears that his huge wage is no longer affordable for the Serie A side.
Bianconeri parted with a cool €100m to sign Ronaldo from Real Madrid in 2018, handing the Portugal international a contract worth a whopping €31m per season to convince him to move to the Allianz Stadium.
The problem for Juventus is that Ronaldo’s salary is more than five times larger than the second-highest earner at the club, Paulo Dybala, and with the COVID-19 outbreak drastically slashed the club’s income, affording that kind of money is no longer as easy as it was.
According to Goal’s Romeo Agresti (via Sport), Juventus don’t intend to extend Ronaldo’s contract, which expires in 2022, and they will instead make him available for transfer this summer in an attempt to claw back some of the money they have spent on him.
Club officials fear that Ronaldo has not really justified his high wage, and while that’s a bold claim about a player who scored 37 goals in all competitions last season, Juventus’ issue is that they have not been able to reach the next level with Ronaldo in the ranks.
Winning the Serie A title has been something of a formality in recent years, but it’s the Champions League which has eluded Juventus, and the fact that Ronaldo could not stop them from exiting in the last 16 at the hands of Lyon has left some in Turin feeling frustrated.
There’s a belief that Juventus would be in the exact same position even without Ronaldo, so they are considering letting him go in the summer to help balance the books.
It’s not only the financial side of things which has concerned Juventus. His relationship and commitment to the club have both been brought into question recently, and there are some at the Bianconeri who think offloading Ronaldo would be best for the team.
While he has already bagged six goals in his four Serie A appearances this season, Ronaldo has been branded selfish by some onlookers, including Fabio Capello, who criticised Ronaldo’s role in the recent 4-1 win over Ferencvaros.
Without naming names, manager Andrea Pirlo told Sky Sport Italia after the game that his team needed to be less ‘selfish’ to ensure they close out games earlier, referring to an incident during the game in which Ronaldo declined to pass to Alvaro Morata, who was in a better position to score a goal.
It appears as though Ronaldo’s attitude has frustrated some in Turin, many of whom are not happy to be paying the 35-year-old such a high wage when they’re getting nothing astronomical in return.
