Cristiano Ronaldo moves from Real Madrid to Juventus: Timely transfer is a win-win situation for all parties involved

Cristiano Ronaldo is finally moving away from Real Madrid. For the last few years, like the boy (from the Aesop’s fable) who cried wolf, he kept threatening that he would move away from Spanish heavyweights after every recent season; and every single time (until this time, that is), it turned out to be a false alarm. The methods were as predictable as the ones you would see in a soap opera. He (or through his agent, Jorge Mendes) would flutter his famous eyelashes to draw attention from a potential list of suitors, only to turn away and return to Madrid for pre-season training. For the outsider, it looked like a powerplay — a move to remind Real Madrid about the desirability of a player of his calibre. Usually, he would get a new contract, once every couple of years or so. But this tactic didn’t work the last two years. And so, here we are. Ronaldo is moving to Juventus for a reported sum of £99.2 million. For a player who is 33 years old, it is indeed a staggering sum. [caption id=“attachment_4714361” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File photo of Cristiano Ronaldo celebrating with the trophy after winning the Champions League final. AP[/caption] But he had to move on some day. All Galacticos did. As celebratory as their signing announcements and playing careers were, they mostly left in acrimony. Figo went to Inter for free; an overweight Ronaldo was berated by Fabio Capello and sold to Milan. After falling out of favour and signing a pre-contract with LA Galaxy, Beckham was exiled from the first team by Capello, and then called back for the last few games before leaving the club on a free transfer; Raul, Roberto Carlos and Iker Casillas were booted out unceremoniously as well. Even Alfredo Di Stefano was forced out of the club. Of all these phenomenal Real Madrid players, only Zinedine Zidane managed to leave the club relatively unscathed, that too because he decided to retire. On the outside, this Ronaldo transfer looks like one of those “amicable” break-ups. At this juncture, Ronaldo’s move looks like a win-win for all parties involved. For the last few years, the voices emanating from the camp of Ronaldo detractors have been getting louder. These voices did gather support at the start of the last couple of league seasons. Ronaldo had a slow start in the first half of the 2016-17 season, and couldn’t find a way to score in the La Liga. But the player had the last laugh as he came back with a vengeance in the second half of the season, and silenced his doubters to push his expiry date by one more year. In the last season, he got sent off against Barcelona in the Spanish Super Cup and Real Madrid missed his services as they went off the rails in the first few league matches, never managing to recover in the Spanish title race (more on this later). Ronaldo once again made up the numbers in the business end of the season, and delivered a third successive Champions league crown. Moving to a new league and proving himself all over again will only further Ronaldo’s legendary status. Ronaldo is a fine physical specimen, akin to a modern-day footballing Adonis. If the fans didn’t think of him in the latter sense, he thought that of himself. Early on in his career, he was the tearaway winger who would sprint on the wing, skip past a challenge and score a goal from distance. Over time, he has learnt to temper that part of his game, choose the moments where he would take on a player in a one-on-one situation, and instead, worked on his anticipation and off-the-ball runs, and honed his famed finishing skills to near perfection. According to FIFA’s tracking stats released a few days ago, Ronaldo was the joint-fastest player at the World Cup. Not bad for a 33 year old, don’t you think? Due to the combination of a tax evasion case and Florentino Perez not offering him a new contract as promised, Ronaldo’s heart was no longer in Madrid, as indicated by him in the afterglow of the 2017-18 Champions League victory interview. Moving to a less physically demanding league will only help Ronaldo to prolong his career. Plus, he is moving to Juventus — a club that is sure to win trophies in Italy (they have won the last seven league title) and feature in the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League. With a four-year contract, he has a chance to win a Champions League title with a third club. As for Juventus, Ronaldo could be the missing X-factor that they need in order to make a dent at the continental stage. Juventus hold the record for losing the most Champions League finals, and a player of Ronaldo’s ability might be able to propel them to the elusive trophy. Admittedly, €100 million is an extravagant sum and a big gamble, but it is a statement of intent nonetheless. It has been nearly 20 years (Brazilian Ronaldo in 2007) since one of the leading players of the world moved to Italy from abroad by choice. Make no mistake — this should be a big shot in the arm for Italian football, and hopefully the league and Juventus will gain a lot of mileage from this move. Where does all this leave Real Madrid? It was in their best interest to move on from the Ronaldo era. Ronaldo has amassed some staggering records for Los Merengues, and it will be next to impossible to find a player who practically gave them a 1-0 lead in every single match. But holding on to a an asset that might depreciate at any given time, but hasn’t yet done so, is a time bomb waiting to go off; worse, it would have blocked the development of younger players who need game time to fully realise their potential. Gareth Bale seems to be clamouring for the “main man” tag, and Marco Asensio lies waiting in the wings, so it is better for Real in the longer run to bid a painful goodbye to a player who has served them so well, and look for a new focal point. It also has been some time from the last “Galactico” signing, and the smart money would be on Perez to bid for the latest new superstar on the rebound. Whether it will be Harry Kane, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar or someone else altogether remains to be seen. The princely sum of money obtained from Ronaldo’s transfer will no doubt soften the financial blow of a potential big-name signing. This move should set a chain of transfer events in motion throughout the continent. Though Real Madrid have played hardball with every single player in the past, they should spare no effort in honouring Ronaldo’s feats and his stature in Real Madrid history (possibly rivalling only Di Stefano as the best player in their history). The club has been the talk of the footballing universe in the recent past with four Champions League trophies in five years — a stat that looks like one from Di Stefano’s era — but it isn’t hard to remember what Real Madrid were for a while before Ronaldo arrived at the scene. Between 2004 and 2009, they kept getting knocked out in the Round of 16. The hex was finally broken by Jose Mourinho, who made them contenders, and Carlo Ancelotti and Zidane left their mark for posterity. At the centre of it all was Ronaldo, scoring nearly 50 goals season after season. For this reason, what they couldn’t do with the others, they should do so with Ronaldo’s departure. For once, they should break away from their tradition of bad break-ups and express their eternal gratitude to Ronaldo for the player he is, and for the glory that he has got them.