The football superstar is trying to engineer a move away from Manchester United
Ronaldo won’t be linking up with Messi and Co in Paris. © Matthew Ashton / AMA / Getty Images
Super agent Jorge Mendes offered Cristiano Ronaldo to Paris Saint-Germain but the French giants turned down the five-time Ballon d’Or winner, according to a report.
ESPN says sources told them Mendes discussed a potential coup for Ronaldo with PSG’s new sporting director Luis Campos and their president Nasser Al-Khelaifi.
Mendes knows his fellow Portuguese Campos well, and is also familiar with Al-Khelaifi with whom he has hashed out numerous contracts for their shared players.
Yet it is claimed that PSG didn’t feel that Ronaldo has the right profile for them at the moment while fitting his salary on the wage bill amid Financial Fair Play regulations would also be tricky.
There also isn’t room for him in Christophe Galtier’s star-studded squad, with the new coach who recently replaced Mauricio Pochettino looking to use a back three defensive line in the upcoming season.
This approach will already find Galtier struggling to accommodate Neymar, Lionel Messi, and Kylian Mbappe in the same line-up, and Ronaldo’s potential arrival would further complicate matters.
Ronaldo is trying to leave current club Manchester United in a bid to play Champions League football, which the Europa League-qualified Red Devils cannot offer him next term.
Asking his employers to listen to suitable offers for him if they came in, the ex-Real Madrid star has thus far failed to report for preseason training while citing family reasons accepted by the club and did not head out to Asia for the first leg of their preseason tour on Friday.
This meant that Ronaldo missed an impressive 4-0 win for United over bitter rivals Liverpool in Bangkok on Tuesday which was new head coach Erik ten Hag’s debut.
Ahead of the showdown in the Thai capital, Ten Hag stated that his team are “planning for Cristiano Ronaldo for the season and that’s it”.
“I’m looking forward to working with him. I have read [that he wants to leave], but what I say is Cristiano is not for sale, he is in our plans and we want success together,” added the Dutchman.
“I spoke with him before this issue came up, I had a conversation with him and I had a good talk. That is between Cristiano and me. What I can confirm is we had a really good conversation together.”
With a shortage of options, Ronaldo may be destined to see out the rest of the two-year contract he signed when joining United from Juventus in summer last year.
PSG are just the latest club to say: ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ to Ronaldo and Mendes. In recent weeks, Bayern Munich have also passed while Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel is not keen either as the west Londoners recently sold by Roman Abramovich seem to have secured Manchester City’s Raheem Sterling.
A lack of action in the transfer market at Old Trafford is also said to have bent Ronaldo’s nose out of shape.
And perhaps it is only by landing the likes of Frenkie de Jong from FC Barcelona and Antony from Ten Hag’s former club Ajax that he may be convinced to stay on.
The current transfer window closes on September 1 while the Premier League season commences on August 5, meaning there is still plenty of time for new arrivals or for Ronaldo to seek a new potential destination.
