July 28, (THEWILL) – Even after a recent sit-down with Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo affirmed that he continues to view his future outside of Old Trafford.
In June, Ronaldo’s camp revealed that he wanted to leave Old Trafford after United missed out on Champions League qualification the previous year. As THEWILL reported, on Tuesday, Ronaldo met with United Chief Executive Officer, Richard Arnold and manager, Erik ten Hag, while being joined by his agent, Jorge Mendes.
The club initially gave the 37-year-old permission to take some time off, so he was unable to join the team on their tour of Thailand and Australia. At this most recent meeting, despite face-to-face discussions, in his first visit to United since the end of the last campaign, the position of the Portuguese superstar has not changed.
United still wants to keep him and Ten Hag has big plans for him. But, Mendes raised the prospect of terminating Ronaldo’s current contract, which still has a year left to run, to give him the freedom to select a team of his choosing as a free agent. With the transfer window deadline still a month away, Mendes and Ronaldo are confident that he has a variety of options available to him.
Ronaldo has fewer options now that the majority of the major clubs in Europe have publicly withdrawn from the idea of signing the striker. He also wants to stay in Europe and has turned down offers from Saudi Arabia and Qatar while informing interested MLS teams that this summer is not the right time to consider a move to the US.
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
