Cristiano Ronaldo really returning to Manchester United?*
Is the best player in the world coming home? GQ's new football columnist and Manchester United expert Andy Mitten goes behind the headlines...
BY ANDY MITTEN
Football
Is Cristiano Ronaldo really returning to Manchester United?
Is the best player in the world coming home? GQ's new football columnist and Manchester United expert Andy Mitten goes behind the headlines...
BY ANDY MITTEN
Cristiano Ronaldo’s stock has never been higher. His club is the best in Spain, Europe and the world; his country's team are the European champions. He’s the current Ballon d’Or holder after edging his nemesis Lionel Messi in 2016; he’s already favourite to win in 2017.
Real Madrid know his worth: in November they awarded him another new contract to make him the world’s highest paid player. A symbolic €1 billion buy out was added as he continued his contract arms race with Messi. In return Ronaldo said he wanted to finish his career at Madrid – when he’s 41.
Until last Friday that was how it stood, then his people were happy to release stories that he wanted to leave Real Madrid after Spanish prosecutors said they were to chase him for unpaid taxes. The Spanish public merely sighed in a "not again" type of way and, in the quietest week of the year, the ever-voracious football media didn’t complain either. Within hours Ronaldo’s people began linking him with football’s plutocrats – Manchester United and PSG – those two perennially eager suitors used to being pawns in football transfer deals when the finest Iberian-based football talents aren’t happy.
Sergio Ramos dallied similarly with United in the summer of 2015. United are interested in football’s finest talent, so of course they were interested in Ramos. They spoke; Ramos only had to say yes while on the Madrid’s pre-season tour of China. Everyone was ready to go, even on his side. Predictably, Madrid offered him more money and he stayed where he’s loved.
Then there was Neymar, more back page splashes to wave in the faces of those he hoped to extract more money from. Even Andrés Iniesta’s people (there is an excess of "people" surrounding galacticos) let United know he’d be interested in a move to Old Trafford in 2013. Did Iniesta have any genuine intention of leaving Barça? Like Robert Mugabe intends to leave Zimbabwean politics he did.
Ronaldo’s one of the five greatest players in the history of football. He’d put himself top of any list. He’s the most talented player this writer has ever seen wearing red at Old Trafford. He’d be the best player at United if he joined tomorrow, eight years after he left. The irreplaceable hasn’t been replaced and he’s remained hugely popular with fans, even though he left United when they were world champions in June 2009.
Former United teammates still speak well of him. There are no skeletons in the Old Trafford closet. His song is still sung, invoking decade-old memories of when United had a side good enough to go to Roma, Arsenal or Barcelona away and attack.
The Portuguese player would be the game changer United have been lacking, the man who can score a winning goal in a Champions League quarter-final away leg after the first leg has been drawn at home.
The main man, with only Messi to challenge him, Ronaldo would demand the earth wherever he goes, but United have at long last monetised their global support. Commercially, no club in the world comes close to the sixth best team in England last season.
United’s suits and the many sponsors they court would salivate. Sir Alex Ferguson once had his new signings picked up by the back door at Manchester Airport by someone whom wouldn’t be recognised, the kit man Norman Davies or Karl Evans out of the ticket office. Now they arrive by helicopter or in club-sponsored cars. United have bought into the razzmatazz, the social buzz, the name and reputation of the players, because the producers of Mr Potato, United’s global snack partner, want it that way.
Zlatan Ibrahimović sold more shirts last season than any other United player by a distance. Now it’s Pogba, the player United promised to build their team around when they signed him ahead of Real Madrid a year ago. Mancunian Marcus Rashford is second. These young lads are the future of United, but it’ll take time, just as it took Ronaldo time when he improved year on year after moving to England.
Zlatan, 35, proved the sceptics wrong. Radamel Falcao didn’t, nor Ángel Di María. The biggest names generate the biggest numbers off the pitch, but they don’t guarantee success on it.
Ronaldo would graft. He’s 32, but no footballer has pursued personal excellence as much as he. His standards have been remarkably consistent and he’s tweaked his game as he’s aged to remain blisteringly effective.
United’s stance is that they want Ronaldo if he’s available, but the club should proceed with caution. Ronaldo sent them mixed messages in 2013 and, after a fruitless chase, the club ended up with Marouanne Fellaini on a deadline day. Fellaini, perhaps justifiably, still feels that the manner in which he was signed works against him with United fans.
Ed Woodward, United’s executive vice-chairman who does the transfer business, tightened his relationship with Jorge Mendes, Ronaldo’s agent, after that. More messages were received in 2015, but Ronaldo remained in Madrid. It has become a pattern, one which usually ends with Ronaldo staying put with the promise of more money, his easily-bruised ego massaged and Ronaldo energised to lead his club to more success.
There are other reasons to tread softly. Sixth wasn’t good enough last season, but Jose Mourinho has done well since he arrived. His signings have worked when so many previously have failed. He’s identified a further batch of players for this summer and United have the money to sign them.
The man with the statue which doesn’t look like him wasn't on the list and that’s because he’s been consistently making pro-Madrid statements, no matter how much revisionism is now going on about him feeling like he has "unfinished business" at Old Trafford.
It’s an indicator maybe of United’s desperation that they’re always the bridesmaids, flirted with demeaningly to keep fitter objects of desire more keen. The greatest players should aspire to come to Old Trafford when things are going right. One of the three biggest clubs on the planet shouldn’t be a second choice or a fall-back option.
Come back to Old Trafford by all means Cristiano. You’re still adored and would be welcomed with open arms, but don’t spend the close season extracting the urine out of the club and fans who treated you so well on your way to the top.