Cristiano Ronaldo is poised to turn down an astonishing contract offer from an undisclosed club in Saudi Arabia but still plans to leave Manchester Unitedaccording to reports.
The 37-year-old has informed the club’s hierarchy that he does not want to spend a season outside the club. Champions League at this stage of his career and has asked to leave this summer.
He did not join the squad on their preseason tour through Thailand and Australia, who was allowed to skip the start of the training for ‘family reasons’.
A host of clubs have been linked with transfers for Ronaldo, including Bayern Munich, first club Sporting Lisbon, Italy’s Roma and even Premier League rivals Chelsea.
But on Wednesday night CNN Portugal unveiled an incredible offer from a club in Saudi Arabia who were prepared to make the five-time Ballon d’Or winner the highest-paid player in football history.
With the proposal, Ronaldo would pocket €250 million (£211 million) over two seasons, which equates to around £2 million a week.
That’s about five times what he currently earns at Old Trafford, while United would also receive £25million as part of the deal.
However, according to ESPNRonaldo is unaffected by the huge salary offered in the Saudi Pro League and will decline the highly lucrative offer.
Despite the money on offer, the Portuguese superstar’s sole priority is to play Champions League football next season and he wants to compete for major trophies in a competitive league.
He cannot play that in Saudi Arabia and he has no intention of leaving European competition at this stage of his career.
However, Ronaldo still wants to leave Old Trafford, although he will not get such a lucrative deal from any club in Europe.
United are also unlikely to receive such a high fee, although a bid of around £20million – roughly equivalent to the total package they agreed to with Juventus a year ago – could be enough to convince them to sell.
While the Red Devils insist they want to keep Ronaldo, there are suggestions that he is a bad fit for the style of football new boss Erik ten Hag is playing and they could be tempted to make money.
It remains to be seen whether Ronaldo will fly to Australia to team up with his United team-mates for their pre-season tour, or simply return to Carrington in 10 days when the squad returns to the UK.
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