MILAN - Cristiano Ronaldo will not train with Juventus on Friday, the Serie A giants confirmed to AFP, as rumours of an imminent move to Manchester City gather pace.
ROME: Cristiano Ronaldo will not train with Juventus on Friday, the Serie A giants confirmed, as rumours of an imminent move to Manchester City gather pace.
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner as the world’s best footballer has no intention of staying at Juventus, coach Massimiliano Allegri said on Friday. Last weekend he had asserted that the 36-year-old star was not going anywhere.
Allegri told a news conference ahead of his side’s Serie A clash with Empoli this weekend that Ronaldo informed him on Thursday of his wish to leave.
“Yesterday Cristiano told me that he no longer plans to play for Juventus,” Allegri said.
“This is why he will not be called up tomorrow, he did not train yesterday and now we can talk about Empoli.”
Widespread media reports said that Ronaldo left Juve’s Continassa training centre before the start of Friday’s session. Sky Sport Italia reported that he arrived in the morning to say goodbye to his teammates before leaving at around 10.45am local time.
Asked by AFP if Ronaldo would be training with his Juve teammates, a club spokeswoman confirmed that he would not.
According to the newspaper Gazzetta Dello Sport, a deal for superstar Ronaldo to go to Premier League champions Manchester City could be completed with the next 24 hours.
Despite Juventus insisting the 36-year-old was staying, on Thursday Sky claimed the Portugal captain had already cleaned out his locker in the dressing room and is reluctant to make himself available to face Empoli this weekend.
If a deal is to be reached, the clock is ticking with the transfer window set to close on Tuesday.
Premier League champions City have been widely linked with a move for the five-time Ballon d’Or winner after missing out on England captain Harry Kane.
The fee, however, could be a problem with the Italians believed to be wanting in the region of 25 million euros ($29.4 million).
Ronaldo, who has one year remaining on his contract, has also been linked with Paris Saint-Germain and a return to Madrid.
Ronaldo joined Juve in 2018 to huge fanfare. Italy’s top scorer last season with 29 goals, he started the Udinese match last Sunday on the bench.
Last week, Ronaldo himself rubbished reports of a move back to Real Madrid, calling them “disrespectful” and saying that stories of his departure were written with “nobody ever being concerned about trying to find out the actual truth”.
Real Madrid have since had an initial bid of 160 million euros for PSG star Kylian Mbappe rejected, but according to French media reports they are set to make a second offer of 180 million.
That would close any route for Ronaldo back to the Santiago Bernabeu, although as well as the reports of a possible move to City, there have also been rumours he could join old rival Lionel Messi in Paris to replace Mbappe should the Frenchman leave.
Ronaldo scored 118 goals in 292 appearances for Manchester United early in his career before leaving for Madrid in 2009.
He joined Juve in 2018 after scoring a remarkable 450 goals in 438 matches in a glittering nine-year spell at the Bernabeu that also included four Champions League triumphs.
At Juventus, his hopes of winning another Champions League have been thwarted, with the club failing to get beyond the quarter-finals during his time in Turin.
Last season, they were deposed as Italian champions by Inter Milan.
