Cristiano Ronaldo - What's next?

A source close to the Portuguese captain has reported that he is 'upset' after being accused of tax evasion and that he no longer wants to play his football in Spain, meaning leaving Real Madrid. Cristiano was accused of defrauding the authorities of millions of euros in tax, an accusation he has denied. The same source who reported on Ronaldo's comments has also said that the Madrid forward, "feels he is honest, has a good character and did everything okay." The current holder of the Ballon D'or has recently signed a new contract with the Spanish champions, running until 2021. As well as this, Ronaldo's buy out clause is an incredible 1 billion euros, (£874.88 million) making it highly unlikely CR7 will leave the Spanish capital without the blessing of the club. The accusations were made on the 14th June 2017, Real Madrid quickly released a statement backing their record goal scorer and saying they believe he will 'prove his innocence'. Despite the backing from his club the news today suggests Cristiano is set on leaving the club and his decision will not change, so if this does come to pass, what happens next? Even if you take the ludicrous buy out clause out of the equation, there is still a very select few teams on the planet who could afford Ronaldo's wages, and an even smaller selection who could secure his signature. So lets have a look, where could be the next home of Portugal's finest.

Bayern Munich -

I feel this is the most unlikely option but one certainly which holds merit. One aspect of Ronaldo's character is that he wants to be the best, and from what his career has shown us so far, he only wants to play for the best and Bayern certainly fit the bill. The German champions are one of few teams who would be willing to shill out an incredible amount of money on Cristiano's wages with Polish striker Robert Lewandowski making over 200,000 euros a week at the time of writing this. On top of that, five members of the first team no including Lewandowski are earning over 150,000 euros at the moment, showing that they are not shy about paying their players what they deserve. Now Ronaldo's wage bill would arguably double that of Lewandowski's, but the current combined wage bill at the Allianz Arena indicates the money is their to be spent. Then there is of course, image. As I previously mentioned, Cristiano appears to want nothing more in football than to be the best, the be more specific, better then Lionel Messi. One argument Ronaldo supporters love to use if the fact that he has proven his quality in two different countries (England and Spain,) winning the Ballonparis  D'or in both, where as Messi has never played domestic football outside of Spain. So the draw to turn that tally of two countries into three is one that could be potentially very tempting for Ronaldo. and as he looks nailed on to win his 5th Ballon D'or this year, tying Messi's tally of five, we could potentially see CR7 winning the famous award while representing a club in his third different country.

Paris Saint Germain (PSG) -

Once again, the chance for Ronaldo to take ANOTHER country by storm. Now as a club PSG do not hold the same drawing power of Bayern Munich, the Paris side have a history of underachieving outside of their domestic competitions, and this year even failed to win the league title. However one thing PSG have over Bayern is their bank account. The company which owns Paris SG are Oryx Qatar Sports Investments, ran by Nasser Al-Khelaifi, the chief executive of the club, also with a lot of investments coming from the Qatari Royal Family. PSG are very familiar with spending huge sums of money on a player, Edison Cavini's signing from Napoli in 2013 is the national record in France and much like Bayern before, the wage bill coming from Paris more then indicates they could afford to pay Ronaldo. Unlike Bayern however who I realistically couldn't see paying the money Ronaldo would demand, I wouldn't be surprised to see PSG offering exactly what Cristiano wants. It was also reported that two years ago, the then French champions offer £125 million for the services of the Madrid forward, which would still stand as a world record transfer, so the interest is most definitely there. This would then just leave the decision of whether or not the Ronaldo would be happy taking a step down in quality to get away from Spain, this move could also be what is needed in Paris for PSG to really become the powerhouse in European football everyone expected them to become three years ago.


ANY Chinese team -

In December of last year an unnamed Chinese side offered a staggering £250 million to Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo. The club were prepared to pay an annual salary of £85million, which would have made his by far the highest paid player in the world. Money is all that China has to Offer Cristiano really, with the standard of football being incredibly low compared to what he will be used to, the attention on him will diminish and it could potentially lead to him falling behind in the running for the mantel of 'best in the world'. But money s a strange thing in football, surely there is only so much you can spend, and with well over £1million a week going into his bank account, how many Chinese cars could Ronaldo buy before getting bored. But we'd have said the same about Carlos Tevez, about Oscar, about Ramires, about Ezequiel Levezzi, and Hulk, and Alex Teixeira, all would class players who threw away a career in the top leagues for the top wage bills. Could I see Ronaldo every going to China when he fired in a brace during the Champions League final? Of course not. But Now? When it appears his head has been turned? Who knows.

Manchester United -

You know the second any United fan caught wind that Ronaldo might be leaving Madrid they all jumped to the conclusion that he would be 'coming home'. Cristiano Ronaldo to Manchester United seems to pop up in every transfer window, and 99% of the time it is wishful thinking on the part of the reporters and the fans of the Manchester club. Yes, it is a very big possibility that Ronaldo could return to Old Trafford one day, but when he has been in the peak of his career, breaking records and making history. His former club have been struggling, failing to quality for the Champions League in their last three seasons. However, after winning the Europa league this year and guaranteed progress to the group stages, maybe the 'stage' is set for Ronaldo to come back. United manager Jose Mourinho knows the Spanish press very well, and will understand exactly what his countryman is going through. After managing Cristano at the Bernabeu during the early 2010's, you'd imagine it wouldn't be beyond the reach of the special one to convince Ronaldo of his next move. Then, once again, we come back to money. Let's just look at it this way, by signing Paul Pogba last summer for 105 million euros, they broke the world record transfer fee, proving they have no problem what so every spending big to get their man. Five, I repeat, five players were being paid over £200,000 a week at the start of the 2016/2017 season, with Pogba's wages pushing very close to £300,000, so it is very clear that they also have no problem paying huge wages either. In reality, if Ronaldo is to move, Manchester United seems like the best bet. He clearly loves the club, thanks to the Europa League win he wont be missing out on the champions league. He can reunite with Jose Mourinho and help to rebuild United back to where they belong (This would go a long way in proving Ronaldo is the best of all time). The wage demands are no problem, and despite the incredible buyout clause I'm sure the Red Devils board could offer a sum which would force the men in charge of Los Blancos to listen. Will it happen? It is still very early days (The news was leaked only earlier today) But it certainly isn't impossible.

Real Madrid -

Then there's the possibility that this is all just Cristiano trying to make the authorities forget what he's being accused on and make the entire country focus on the possibility of him leaving. Okay maybe this is reading a little to far into it, it's highly likely that Ronaldo is very hurt by the accusations if they are indeed false and he made the statements in the 'heat of the moment'. You'd expect Ronaldo to handle the situation a little better, especially after spending the entirety of the last decade in the limelight, but it is human at the end of that day. Real Madrid are the biggest club on the planet, are on the back of making history in the Champions League and winning their first Spanish league title since 2012. They also are paying CR7 an amount of money very few teams on the planet can match and you'd imagine offer him all of the perks that come with being the best player in the world. Possibly biggest of all is that by being a 'galactico' their is no bigger stage for Ronaldo so show his quality and continue to grow as a player. Since signing in 2009, Madrid's number 7 has evolved his game from a tricky winger to a clinical goalscorer, and the world has taken note. From 2009 until 2012 Lionel Messi was by far and away the world's best, and four straight Ballon Do'rs prove that fact. But since he started to adjust his game, Ronaldo has made it a much more level playing field, it's neck and neck. The change in his game could see Portugal's captain playing at the top level for another 5 years, his intensity of play has slowed and he appears to be in the shape of his life. Also you'd imagine almost EVERY goal scoring record in Europe would have been broken by then, because that's just what he does. To be honest, I can't see Cristiano ever leaving the Bernabeu, the biggest club in the world and the man who wants to be the best player in the world, it's a perfect fit.

Chinese Super league - What Just Happened?

It's been threatening to for a while, but it appears the Chinese Super league is finally making its claim to become a new power house of world football. As another rather uneventful January transfer window in England has drawn to a close, the window in China is still open, and the incredible list of player who have taken the journey to China is continuing to grow. After Didier Drogba signed for Shanghai Shenhua in 2012, the Chinese league appeared to calm down for a period, with only a few top name players moving to the country, and much like the MLS, these players where heading towards the back end on their career, which makes this January's transfer spectacular even more incredible!

With still two weeks to go in their winter transfer window, the top tier of Chinese football has seen a staggering £105,445,598.18 spend on incoming players so far, comfortably topping the English Premier Leagues spending for this window and making it the highest spending league in the world for the winter window. As well as this, four of the top five spending individual clubs in this window have been Chinese, with only Norwich City bucking the trend. Now, we have seen obscure leagues spend incredible money on a lot of big name players in the past, the most recent examples being the MLS, bringing in the likes of Kaka, David Villa, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard and Andrea Pirlo all in a short space of time, the reason why this Chinese spending spree is so different and is making the whole football world take note is that, these players are not only big names, but still in the prime of their career and could force their way into some of the top teams in world football. Former Arsenal winger Gervinho made the jump this window, as did Colombian midfielder Fredy Guarin and the ever present, now former Chelsea deep lying midfielder Ramires. However, the two biggest deal of the window both broke the record transfer fee for Chinese football, and both 100% made the world of football stand back and watch, especially those in England!

The 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil saw a lot of players showcase their talents on the biggest stage of them all, and one striker who certainly took advantage of this was Jackson Martinez, despite stiff competition from team mates restricting his time on the pitch, when he started the group game against Japan, Martinez scored a very impressive brace, and showed the world what he could do! Alongside an incredible goal scoring record of 67 goal in 89 games for FC Porto in Portugal, in the summer of 2015 Jackson made a 35 million Euro move to Atletico Madrid, turning down long term suitors Arsenal in the process. Martinez has been on the radar for the London based club for quite a while, so when things failed to click at Atletico for Jackson, it was widely rumored that Arsenal would make another attempt to sign the front man. However, almost out of no where, 3rd February 2016 saw a Asian transfer record fee of 42 Million Euros agreed to bring Jackson to Chinese Super League side Guangzhou Evergrande Taobao. This deal shook the world of football, seeing such a big name, coming from one of the worlds elite in Athletico, moving to China, however this wasn't the biggest deal of the window. 

Liverpool Football Club, the five time champions of Europe, 18 times champions of England, one of the world recognised super powers of the beautiful game, so who'd of thought they'd ever lose out in signing their number one target to a side from China? Well that's what happened. Brazilian attacking midfielder Alex Teixeria has spend the last few seasons letting the world of football know about his ability! With 46 goals in 62 games over the last two season for Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, it appeared the Brazilian was to follow in the footsteps of fellow former Shakhtar stars such as Douglas Costa, Willian and Fernandiniho to make a big money move away from the club. When Liverpool approached the Donetsk based side about signing Teixeira in January of this year, they where turned down, and told they would have to offer upwards of 50 Million Euros to sign the Brazilian, despite trying to lower the price for most on the month, the English transfer window closed with the deal dead in the water. Alex Teixeira came out and said he wished for the deal to go threw to increase his chances of representing his national team. When the deal didn't happen, it appeared as if Teixeira was very disappointing with this decision and his comments hinted at a move to the club the following summer. However, no more then three days later, the 50 Million Euro price tag set on the Brazilian by Shakhtar had been met, not by Liverpool, but by Jiangsu Suning for a record Chinese transfer fee, meaning the record fee had been broken twice in two days! This deal ran riot in the English media, and made many people who has tried to ignore the Chinese Super League's spending stand up and take notice! A player with such high potential, has moved to the league, after failing to secure a deal to a traditional giant of the game! 

The back to back record transfers saw the Chinese Super League burst into the spot light, with many people questioning how and why this had happened! And then, days later it was revealed that Chelsea had declined a 60 Million Euro bid for Brazilian midfielder Oscar, which would have made him the third most expensive transfer in English football history (After Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid, and Fernando Torres to Chelsea). When this offer came to light, you certainly have to wonder what has caused this sudden influx of talent and this, almost obsession with the game which hasn't been seen before from the Chinese league. Chinese president Xi Jinping announced a goal to create a domestic sport economy worth $850bn by 2025. At the heart of this goal and the accompanying plan is the aim of hosting and winning the World Cup. The influx of money being pumped into Chinese football is of course going to attract many players to get involved in this country wide push, as well as top players coming to China, former England and Manchester City boss Sven Goran-Eriksson, and World Cup winning manager Luiz Felipe Scolari have started managing in the top tier of Chinese football. The increase in both playing and managing staff will see the standard of the league grow drastically, now the overall goal of the Chinese national side winning the World Cup may be very, very, very far in the future but the increase in talent in their top flight can only lead to good things for Chinese football. 


Well the Leicester City owner said he would invest to ensure a top five finish for the foxes, and now they're six points clear at the top of the table, so you never know, in 2026 we may be seeing China win their first ever World Cup!