Cristiano Ronaldo will not be joining Chelsea with the Blues ending their interest in signing the Manchester United forward following the arrival of Raheem Sterling.
Ronaldo is keen to leave Manchester United given the Red Devils are not participating in next season’s Champions League, and the No.7 is not particularly impressed with the summer transfer business so far.
According to the Times, there are several factors that have led Chelsea to drop out of the bidding for the Portuguese star.
One of them is the arrival of Sterling at Chelsea. The winger, who has joined from Manchester City, has ended any hope of Cristiano arriving at Stamford Bridge, as the Englishman was one of Thomas Tuchel’s major targets as a way of strengthening his attack.
And it is precisely Tuchel who is another of the obstacles to Cristiano’s arrival at Chelsea.
The German was not very supportive of the Portuguese’s signing, as he did not see the 37-year-old fitting into his attacking plans.
Meanwhile, Cristiano has an exorbitant offer. Reports from Portugal have claimed that he has received an offer of 300 million euros from Saudi Arabia, although the player still wants to play in the Champions League next season.
Running out of options in Europe
After Chelsea dropped out of the race to sign Cristiano, the Portuguese is running short of options in Europe.
Bayern Munich were another of the teams that had been interested in his services, but have also ruled out signing him.
“As much as I admire Cristiano Ronaldo as one of the greatest, signing him would not be in line with our philosophy,” said Oliver Kahn, chairman of Bayern’s board of directors.
Meanwhile, a Saudi Arabian club has made a massive offer to sign the star from Manchester United, according to TVI and CNN Portuguesa.
Since this newspaper revealed Cristiano Ronaldo’s desire to leave Manchester United, the Portuguese superstar has been linked to various clubs in Europe including Chelsea, Bayern, Naples, Rome, Barcelona, among others.
However, none of these teams has managed to put together as big a bid for the striker as the one that has just come in from Saudi Arabia.
According to TVI and CNN Portuguesa, the Portuguese star has received an offer of 300 million euros ($300 million with the euro having fallen to parity against the dollar) to go and play for two seasons in Saudi Arabia.
According to reports a club from the Middle Eastern country, which has not been identified, is trying to convince Cristiano Ronaldo with the largest offer in soccer history. The 300 million euros of the offer would be divided as follows: 30 million as a transfer fee for Manchester United, 250 million, divided across the two seasons for the player and the remaining 20 million for intermediaries.
Ronaldo wants one more season in the European big time
However, as far as this newspaper is aware, Cristiano Ronaldo is still thinking of playing at least one more season in the European elite, meaning he is not considering accepting the eye-watering proposal. With the World Cup in Qatar just around the corner, the Portuguese star is still confident that one of the big European clubs that have sounded him out will end up presenting a firm offer.