Cristiano Ronaldo is willing to take a huge wage drop in order to facilitate a possible move to Manchester City, 90min has learned.
The 36-year-old decided earlier this summer he felt he should leave Turin, despite having a year left on his current deal with Juventus.
Ronaldo and his agent Jorge Mendes both agreed a new club was needed – however, they wanted to join a club that would likely challenge for the Champions League, which limited the options.
As 90min previously confirmed, Mendes is working very hard to seal a deal for Ronaldo and he approached Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester City earlier this month, but both told him they were not interested.
PSG’s stance remains unchanged, despite a possible sale of Kylian Mbappe, but things are different with City – who only had eyes for Harry Kane up until recently when he accepted Tottenham would not sell him this summer.
Mendes has approached City numerous times in the last week, knowing they needed a striker, to take another look at Ronaldo as an option.
Despite hesitation, it is believed City have relented somewhat to the extent they are listening to the prospective deal – but there are major hurdles.
Ronaldo’s current wage packet after tax is around £600,000-a-week and City made it clear they would not be willing to make him the highest paid player in the Premier League and would not want him to be their highest paid player – that currently being Kevin De Bruyne who just penned a deal worth around £380,000-a-week.
Sources close to Juventus have confirmed to 90min they have been left ‘disappointed’ by Ronaldo’s stance and, although accepting of it, they will not allow him to leave unless it is on their terms – which means they need to sell him and recoup some money in order to satisfy tax issues that could emerge with his departure.
We have been told City do not want to pay any money for Ronaldo and have made that clear to Mendes – which is another reason that a possible pay packet for the Portuguese superstar could be as little as £250,000-a-week.
Mendes believes that if Ronaldo signed a two-year deal, the money City save from the reduced terms would then allow them to give Juventus the cash they are looking for to conclude a deal.
We have been told that although in theory these terms are agreeable to Ronaldo and City, it is far from certain that the two clubs will come to an agreement – but Mendes is working very hard to seal the deal.
Source: 90min
