LONDON: Last month, Real Madrid won a third consecutive Champions League Final. By the end of August, they could have divested themselves of both the coach who oversaw such unprecedented success and the footballer at the helm of it.
Zinedine Zidane has already gone, resigning before he was dismissed. As matters stand, Cristiano Ronaldo is on his way out, infuriated with Florentino Perez for reneging on a promise to make his pay match his status as the world’s best footballer.
“It was very beautiful to be at Real Madrid,” said Ronaldo minutes after becoming the only player to win five Champions League Finals. Subsequent discussions with Madrid’s president have not resolved the conflict. The Portuguese is still talking about his club in the past tense.
Ronaldo’s position is straightforward. He has won four of the past five Ballons d’Or. Across his nine seasons at the Santiago Bernabeu he has returned well over a goal per game, resetting a host of club, national and continental records while winning 11 major trophies. In the past three Champions League campaigns alone he has delivered 43 goals in 38 appearances.
By statistical measure and FIFA vote his contribution to the game has surpassed that of every peer for multiple years. Yet not only Lionel Messi, but also Neymar, are paid significantly more than him.
In the first half of 2017, Perez promised to improve Ronaldo’s contract, at that point worth a basic €48 million ($56 million) per year, before tax. By the time Madrid’s offer was presented to the forward, Neymar’s salary was higher at Paris Saint-Germain, while Messi’s game of brinkmanship with Barcelona had secured a deal worth over €50 million a year after-tax once the Argentine’s €100 million signing bonus was factored in.
Perez refused to match those terms, instead making an offer to Ronaldo structured around performance-related payments. For a footballer who has guaranteed elite performance for a decade the proposed contract was — and is — considered an insult. As is the message being sent to Spanish media that a 33-year-old Ronaldo should not expect anything better.
A further thorn is one that also irritated Zidane: the president’s perpetual courtship of Neymar. When Ronaldo received his fifth Ballon d’Or last December, Perez announced that “being in Madrid would make it easier” for the Brazilian to wrest football’s premier individual award from him. Neymar and father spent the remainder of the season agitating for that transfer to happen.
A broken promise, an offer to renew on conditional terms where “the difference to Neymar and Messi is too big”, and a president obsessed with signing a 26-year-old troublemaker yet to deliver a single goal-per-game season. Those close to Ronaldo think the outcome of this constellation of problems will be a departure from Madrid.
A return to Manchester United, they say, is not easy. Jose Mourinho’s squad is well provided for in Ronaldo’s position and the manager’s focus in on strengthening elsewhere. PSG is the more realistic transfer.
The Qatar-owned club has long coveted Ronaldo and is working on a strategy to secure the move this summer. Financial wherewithal is not an issue for a state-funded entity that committed to the two highest transfer fees in history last summer. What PSG have to find is a way of structuring the transaction so that it passes UEFA’s Financial Fair Play regulations.
One element is to ensure that Madrid’s price for Ronaldo reflects their own reluctance to meet the player’s salary expectations. Another involves selling the likes of Julian Draxler, Odsonne Edouard, Angel Di Maria and Goncalo Guedes to raise revenue and create room on PSG’s wage bill.
Qatar insists that including Neymar in a deal to sign Ronaldo will not happen this summer. They want both on the same PSG team, and that team to win the club’s first Champions League. If the Qataris get their way, at least one of that pair will focus all his considerable talent on making that dream reality.
Why Cristiano Ronaldo’s future could well lie at Paris Saint-Germain and not Real Madrid
Why Cristiano Ronaldo’s future could well lie at Paris Saint-Germain and not Real Madrid
- Ronaldo known to be unhappy at Real Madrid due to pay dispute.
- A return to Manchester United unlikely.
Man City fight back to end Anfield hoodoo and reel in Arsenal
- Victory was City’s first away to Liverpool in front of a crowd since 2003 and reapplies some pressure to Arsenal’s quest for a first title in 22 years
LIVERPOOL: Erling Haaland’s stoppage-time penalty earned Manchester City a dramatic 2-1 win at Liverpool on Sunday to reduce Arsenal’s lead at the top of the Premier League back to six points.
City were heading for defeat at Anfield with six minutes to go before Bernardo Silva canceled out Dominik Szoboszlai’s stunning free-kick to spark an incredible finale.
Haaland put City in front from the spot before the visitors had another goal ruled out and Szoboszlai was sent off in the same incident after a VAR review.
Victory was City’s first away to Liverpool in front of a crowd since 2003 and reapplies some pressure to Arsenal’s quest for a first title in 22 years.
Defeat delivered another blow to Liverpool’s hopes of Champions League football next season.
The defending champions remain down in sixth and four points adrift of the top five.
These two clubs have combined to win the last eight Premier League titles, but both showed the flaws which have opened the door for Arsenal to potentially end their long wait to be crowned champions of England once again.
Haaland has scored just once from open play in his last 13 games and an uncharacteristic lack of confidence from the Norwegian showed with the best chance of the first half inside the opening two minutes.
Silva’s clever pass split the Liverpool defense, but Haaland’s shot lacked conviction under pressure from Milos Kerkez, and Alisson Becker was able to save low to his left.
Haaland hooked another effort straight at Alisson among 10 first half City attempts without a breakthrough.
Guehi booed
Second half slumps have been a consistent feature of City’s season and the visitors again faded in the second period until a late flurry saved their title challenge.
Hugo Ekitike should have opened the scoring when he completely miscued his header just before the hour mark after a lightning fast Liverpool break.
Marc Guehi was relentlessly booed after his proposed move to Liverpool from Crystal Palace broke down on transfer deadline day in September.
City took advantage to swoop in last month when they lost two key center-backs to injury.
Guehi was fortunate to escape with just a yellow card when he dragged down Mo Salah just outside the box.
But it was City who were left fuming at the award of the free-kick which led to the opener when Ryan Gravenberch went down under minimal contact.
Szoboszlai scored the only goal with an outrageous free-kick when Arsenal visited Anfield in August and produced another stunning strike which clipped the inside of the post before finding the net.
However, the Hungarian went from hero to villain when City levelled six minutes from time.
Szoboszlai played Silva onside as he slid in to volley home Haaland’s header for City’s first second half goal in the Premier League this year.
Alisson then wiped out Matheus Nunes to concede a penalty and Haaland kept his cool from the spot to put City in front.
Pep Guardiola’s men still needed a stunning save from Gianluigi Donnarumma to tip behind Alexis Mac Allister’s deflected shot.
With Alisson remaining forward from the resulting corner, the Liverpool goal was open when Rayan Cherki took aim from the halfway line to roll the ball into an empty net.
However, Haaland and Szoboszlai’s grappling as the ball trickled toward the goal saw the strike ruled out, with a free-kick awarded to City instead, and the Liverpool player given his marching orders.
