Cristiano Ronaldo's leaving of Madrid may not as people may have foreseen see to the end of his superb career.
He debuted in Serie A in a 3-2 thrashing of Chievo by Juventus to prove he is still a force to reckon with.
The game itself broke records. Sky Italia’s coverage show a 68 per cent increase on the numbers for last season’s opening game between Juventus and Cagliari.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport, via Football Italia, 2,330,234 unique viewers tuned in to see the £105million man in action.
Ronaldo’s debut thereby becomes the fourth-highest viewed programme on the channel ever.
Only two Juventus vs Inter Milan match – and Roma’s visit to the Old Lady – have ever beaten it.
Los Blancos and Barcelona’s attendances dropped massively last weekend for the opening round of La Liga fixtures.
With Ronaldo's absence, the Bernabeu managed to pull in just 48,446 spectators (total capacity: 81,044) in the win over Getafe, while the Nou Camp pulled in 52,356 (total capacity 99,354) in their win over Alaves.
Los Blancos’ poor turnout was immediately attributed to the loss of Ronaldo this summer – but this has been a trend for some time.
Both clubs have hit the nadir for home attendances in their La Liga opener over the last decade.
Marca claim the previous low turn out for Barcelona was last season when 56,480 turned out, whilst Real’s worst turn out was two seasons ago when 61,568 attended.
The worst Madrid attendance can only be found in the penultimate weekend of the 2008/09 season when 44,270 took part in the meaningless clash with Mallorca after Barcelona had already clinched the title.
And that was of course, before Ronaldo signed.
Ronaldo’s debut may have broken records in Italy, but it was a slightly different story in the UK.
The rights to the game after Ronaldo’s blockbuster move to Turin from Real Madrid was held by Eleven Sports.
