Football Ground Map
Football Ground Map
It could well be that Cristiano Ronaldo, the world-renowned Portuguese striker, is about to part company with the Spanish League Championship side, Real Madrid. If he does, it will be the biggest footballing surprise of the year.
Speculation has been initiated following a remark that Ronaldo made in an interview with Goal.com when he said that it has been nice to be at Real Madrid. When he was told that his statement made it sound that he would be leaving the club, he said that in the forthcoming days the footballing world would have its answer.
When he was asked by the Spanish national newspaper, MARCA, for any issues the player has with Real, all he said was that money wasn't the problem. He did go on to say that he wasn't upset and that he was aware what he gives to the club.
On a more enigmatic level, he also said that he can't guarantee anything and that he wasn't about to go into hiding. He offered that he will talk in the next few days and that life wasn't only about glory.
Ronaldo has had more than a fair share of glory while at Real Madrid. He is Real's all-time leading goal scorer with 450 goals to his name; he's scored the highest number of goals in a season with 61, and he has been instrumental in the club's four winning Champions League tournaments in 2014, 2016, 2017, and of course this year - 2018.
It's a record that any of English football's top strikers would aspire to. Ronaldo's past form is only a matter of history, but you have to ask yourself just how long a player can stay at the top.
At 33 years-of-age, he is no spring chicken. The pressure to be at the top of his form for the Spanish soccer giants in order to keep his place in the first team, must be enormous. As he gets older, this pressure grows, together with a diminishing capacity in terms if his physical fitness.
His personal fitness will not be a subject he cares to talk about, so it will be interesting to see what he has to say when he does decide to unload.
In the meantime, it is being suggested by the football media in general and that the Sky Sports La Liga Journalist, Guillem Balague (the man behind the book "Cristiano Ronaldo - the Biography" that Real may not be too unhappy if he does decide to go. It is being suggested that Florentino Perez (Real's chairman)has his sights set on acquiring the services of Neymar, the Brazilian striker currently with Paris Saint-Germain. The €108-million price tag that the Swiss-based CIES Football Observatory have associated with Ronaldo on the transfer market would go a long way to funding the acquisition of the PSG man.
Until Ronaldo rewards us with news of his thoughts, however, who knows where he will be playing his football next season? It seems that he likes to keep everyone guessing every year. As speculation goes - as rife as it always is - it is thought that if he does up-sticks at the Bernabeu, he is likely to return to Manchester United.
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