Cristiano Ronaldo has agreed a sensational return to Manchester United, the Premier League club announced on Friday.
“Manchester United is delighted to confirm that the club has reached agreement with Juventus for the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo, subject to agreement of personal terms, visa and medical,” the club said in a statement on their website.
“Cristiano, a five-time Ballon d’Or winner, has so far won over 30 major trophies during his career, including five Uefa Champions League titles, four Fifa Club World Cups, seven league titles in England, Spain and Italy, and the European Championship for his native Portugal,” it added.
United’s swoop capped a tumultuous 24 hours during which Ronaldo initially seemed poised to join rivals Manchester City.
Premier League champions City had been widely linked with a move for the Portuguese forward after missing out on England captain Harry Kane.
However, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer hinted a deal was in the offing during his pre-match press conference on Friday ahead of Sunday’s Premier League trip to Wolves.
“Cristiano is a legend of this club, he’s the greatest player of all time, if you ask me,” said Solskjaer, who played alongside Ronaldo.
“We’ve always had a good communication. I know Bruno (Fernandes) has been talking to him as well. He knows what we feel about him. If he was ever going to move from Juventus, he knows that we’re here.”
Sky Sport Italia reported that United have offered Juve 28 million euros ($33 million), agreeing a two-year deal with the superstar attacker worth 25 million euros per season.
Ronaldo joined United as a teenager at the age of 18 from Sporting Lisbon and laid the foundations of a stellar career in his six-year stint at Old Trafford.
In his first spell for Manchester United, he scored 118 goals in 292 games, winning three Premier League titles and a Champions League crown along with a FA Cup and two League Cup triumphs.
Ronaldo moved to Real Madrid in 2009 where he established himself as one of the greatest-ever players in the game helping the club win four Champions League titles in his time as he broke a host of goalscoring records during the period.
The Portuguese moved to Juventus in 2018 where he helped the team win two Serie A titles. Juventus’ hopes he would be the final piece required to end their 25-year wait to become champions of Europe have been thwarted.
They have failed to get beyond the quarter-finals in the past three seasons.
Last season, they were deposed as Italian champions by fierce rivals Inter Milan and had to wait until the final day of the campaign to secure qualification for Europe’s top club competition.
However, Ronaldo still topped the Serie A goal charts, edging out Romelu Lukaku, who joined Chelsea this month for £97 million.
And he also rolled back the years at Euro 2020 to win the Golden Boot despite playing just four games as Portugal bowed out at the last 16.
United’s signing of Ronaldo will be a major boost to the title race as he will add the ruthlessness in front of goal that has sometimes been lacking in the Manchester United teams since Alex Ferguson left the club in 2013.
Earlier in the day, Ronaldo had bid goodbye to his Juventus teammates at the training ground before boarding a private jet possibly to Manchester.
(With AFP inputs)
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