Italian giants Juventus have sold a record 520,000 of Cristiano Ronaldo shirts following the unveiling of the Portuguese star on Monday afternoon. The figures, which have been widely reported in Italy will go some way in recouping the €105 million investment they made in signing the 33-year old attacker from Real Madrid.
The sales for the CR7 shirt are going some way to dwarf the 850,000 shirts sold for the Turin based side for the whole of the 2016/2017 season. Speaking at his unveiling, Ronaldo insisted that he was relishing the challenge of playing in Italy.
"I'm here because it's a brand new challenge for my career ,Juventus is a big club. Coming to such a great club at this stage of my career makes me very happy."
Ronaldo joins João Cancelo & Emre Can as the new faces at Juventus ahead of the new season.
There was a strange but fitting symmetry on show for Italian football fans this past week, Juventus announcing a deal for Cristiano Ronaldo around the same time Antonio Conte’s departure from Chelsea was confirmed. Four years earlier, the coach walked out on the Bianconeri on the second day of pre-season training, famously claiming that European success was beyond the means of the club because “you can’t eat in a €100 restaurant with only €10 in your pocket.”
Previous summers had seen the Old Lady miss out on a number of high profile targets including Sergio Aguero and Robin van Persie, with the situation so bad that even Udinese skipper Antonio Di Natale turned down the chance to join the club. At a shareholders meeting in 2014, owner and President Andrea Agnelli was pressed on the failure to sign a big name player, only to respond by saying “one day, we will be able to sign players like Cristiano Ronaldo.”
Clearly that time has now arrived, Monday becoming “#CR7Day” in Turin as the Portuguese megastar’s move was made official. Taking and passing a medical, he was then shown around the new training ground, cutting an immaculate figure in a charcoal grey suit and black shirt as he was introduced to his new team-mates.