Au revoir in France?
In many ways, a year or two in the French capital would represent the perfect denouement for Ronaldo’s career in Europe.
After proving and reaffirming his quality in England, Spain and now Italy, here would be an opportunity to stamp his name over a fourth major domestic league and, despite Lille’s title success in Ligue 1 this season, he could expect plenty more domestic silverware with Paris Saint-Germain.
The Parisians, however, are not expected to commit major funds to this summer’s transfer window. Even deep-pocketed PSG have been damaged by the pandemic, the loss of income from their lucrative hospitality boxes and a collapsed domestic television deal. There is also doubt over the future of manager
Mauricio Pochettino after he held talks with previous club Tottenham, although PSG are determined a coach they only appointed in January will not make a swift return to north London.
The club’s focus in recent months has been to successfully extend Neymar’s contract, and PSG also remain hopeful of securing an agreement this summer to tie
Kylian Mbappe to the club for the long term. These two deals would severely hamstring their capability to add another certified superstar to their ranks, although a forward line of Mbappe, Ronaldo and Neymar is a tantalising prospect.
The Athletic reported late last year that intermediaries had approached PSG to offer them Ronaldo in the previous summer window and the club are understood to have turned this down. Gestifute, the management agency who represents Ronaldo, denied this claim.
There was a time that Ronaldo’s super-agent Jorge Mendes would regularly attend PSG games but his relationship with the club’s president Nasser Al-Khelaifi is not quite as warm as it once was.
At this stage at least, Paris is an unlikely Ronaldo destination.