Chase for Cristiano Ronaldo

Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract renovation not only has Real Madrid on high alert but also several of the world’s richest clubs. Manchester United, Manchester City, Paris Saint-Germain and Monaco are dreaming of landing the Portuguese forward when his contract comes to an end in June 2015. Particularly keen are Dimitry Rybolovlev’s Monaco, who see Cristiano Ronaldo as the ideal addition to a squad which already features Radamel Falcao, Moutinho, James Rodriguez and Carvalho.

Cristiano Ronaldo

All four clubs are prepared to offer the player a signing on fee of 60 million euros together with an annual salary of 23 million euros and allowing him complete control of his own image rights (at the moment, Real Madrid retains 40%). That would make Cristiano the world’s best paid player which Florentino has also promised to do by offering him a contract extension although with a far inferior proposal: 15 million euros net per season (five million more than he earns at the moment) plus performance-related bonuses. Real Madrid President never tires of stating that the big danger facing football today is the money being bandied around by sheikhs and multimillionaire Russians and it is precisely these rivals who the president is up against in his bid to keep Cristiano at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium.

The Portuguese ace resents the fact that during his four years at the capital club, he has not been approached once above renewed terms while Barcelona have boosted Messi’s pay packet six times. Right now, Cristiano Ronaldo is in no rush to reach an agreement. But he feels aggrieved that the issue has been left to this late stage and worse, that Real Madrid’s priority seemed to be securing the transfer of Neymar, an operation which Florentino told Spansih media would cost in the region of 150 million euros.