Report: Cristiano Ronaldo could leave Juve this summer ‘if good bid arrives’

Thursday was the day that Max Allegri officially began work on his Juventus 2.0. He arrived in style, coming in hot to the Juventus Training Center parking lot in anticipation of his meeting with soon-to-be new roster constructor Federico Cherbuini, the man stepping into the spotlight with Fabio Paratici leaving the club.

The main topic of discussion: What Allegri’s squad will look like.

One of the biggest things to reportedly come out of that talk: The club’s highest-paid player is anything but certain to be around come kickoff of the 2021-22 season.

According to Nico Schira of La Gazzetta dello Sport, the meeting between Allegri and Cherubini has still very much resulted in what we’ve heard coming out of the rumor mill lately — and that’s the fact that Cristiano Ronaldo’s future at Juventus is anything but a certainty. According to Schira, the meeting between Allegri and Cherubini “confirmed” that Ronaldo could leave this summer, and that will happen if Juventus receives a good bid. Considering what it will take for Ronaldo’s contract to not show up as a loss on Juve’s books, “a good bid” will likely be in the €25 million to €30 million range.

The catch, of course, is that if Ronaldo truly is potentially leaving, then there’s the matter of a club paying a good amount of money in a pandemic-altered market for a player, while still very good at his job and coming off a Serie A-leading goal tally, who is 36 years old with a salary of €31 million net for next season.

That means that only a small number of clubs can even entertain the idea of signing Ronaldo this summer. Whether it’s Manchester United or Paris Saint-Germain, it won’t take you long to list how many clubs can afford to pay in the range of €30 million plus a massive amount of wages for a player of Ronaldo’s age, no matter how good he still may be.

But when you continuously hear that Allegri’s plan for his Juventus 2.0 centers around Paulo Dybala and not Ronaldo, then you have to wonder if this meeting was more of a confirmation of that or if it was just entertaining the possibility of Ronaldo leaving. This will surely be something that isn’t resolved soon — especially with Ronaldo about to start play at the European Championship. It does seem, though, that if Juve have a player when it comes to making a deal, then they could very well be willing to play ball.

There’s no doubting this, though: When it comes to Juve’s activity on the transfer market this summer, there is no bigger domino to fall than the Ronaldo one. And no matter what happens, whether he stays or goes to Paris or back to Manchester, a lot of what takes place with Ronaldo will determine just what the first iteration of Allegri’s new Juventus will look like.