Getty/Alessandro Sabattini
- Manchester City has been offered the chance to sign Cristiano Ronaldo.
- The club is keen, however, does not want to pay a fee for him, reports Sky Sports.
- Juventus want at least $29 million for the striker. Ronaldo is reportedly willing to leave.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Manchester City has been offered the chance to sign Cristiano Ronaldo.
That's according to Sky Sports, which reports the club is keen to bring the Juventus star back to the English Premier League, but only on a free transfer.
City is willing to offer Ronaldo a two-year contract at the Etihad Stadium with an annual salary of $17.6 million, but do not want to pay a transfer fee.
The club has already completed the $139 million signing of Jack Grealish from Aston Villa this summer.
Sky Sports reports Ronaldo, whose contract in Turin expires next summer, is willing to leave while Juventus is also willing to sell in order to save on the $690,000 a week wages they pay him.
The Italian club, however, want at least $29 million (25 million euros) for the striker.
Transfer expert Fabrizio Romano tweeted on Wednesday to say that Ronaldo's agent Jorge Mendes was in Turin "looking for options" for the 36-year-old, while he also ruled out PSG moving for him.
-Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) August 25, 2021
In April, Juventus confirmed that it ended the first half of the 2020 to 2021 financial year with a loss of €113.7 million ($133 million), added to a loss of €50.3 million ($59 million) in the first half of the previous financial year.
Italian sports journalist Gabriele Marcotti says the club letting Ronaldo leave the club before the end of the month would make sense from a financial perspective.
"Juventus made big losses over the last two seasons," Marcotti told the Transfer Talk podcast. "This is a club listed on the stock exchange and cannot run themselves as if they were a money pit.
"It's not Ronaldo's fault they lost all that money, obviously it's COVID and other poor decisions they made, but the reality is Ronaldo earns about €65 million per season gross, which works out at around £60 million - in excess of £1m a week.
"He has a year left on his contract; a year from now they would lose him for nothing.
"While they are not going to come out and say they wouldn't mind if Ronaldo left, they are also mindful of the fact that if he did leave it would make it easier for them to immediately embark on their rebuilding.
Ronaldo himself last week dismissed transfer speculation, accusing the media of disrespect for reporting on rumors about his future.
"More than the disrespect for me as a man and as a player, the frivolous way that my future is covered in the media is disrespectful to all the clubs involved in these rumors, as well as to their players and staff," the 36-year-old said in an Instagram post.