Report: If Cristiano Ronaldo leaves Juventus, PSG is his only possible destination

It’s been a week and a half since Portugal was eliminated from Euro 2020, and the line of thinking that the Cristiano Ronaldo rumor mill was going to pick up steam has been pretty much confirmed by the Italian media. They’ve speculated about what the meaning behind a recent Instagram post might be all about. There have been rumors about him leaving. There’s been rumors about him staying. Hell, there’s been rumors about him signing a contract extension for another season through 2023.

It’s been what you’ve thought it would be — just without anything actually being clarified.

But there’s this from Sky Sport Italia’s Gianluca Di Marzio on Tuesday night: There is likely just one club who will go after Ronaldo if he does decide to leave Juventus this summer, and that club is Paris Saint-Germain. There have been contacts between Ronaldo’s agent, Jorge Mendes, and the Paris Saint-Germain management team, according to Di Marzio, but nothing extensive that would make you believe that a transfer is going to happen.

Here is what Di Marzio had to say about the Ronaldo situation (with a little help from Google Translate):

The only way out for Ronaldo is Pairs Saint Germain with whom there are ongoing contacts but still not so thorough. If he does not take off, he remains in black and white until his contract expires (2022).

It was maybe a throw away line buried down a bit in Di Marzio’s recap of the day’s transfer happenings that he has reported on (and especially during his nightly show following Italy’s win over Spain in the Euro 2020 semifinals). But it’s important for the simple fact that there was always going to be an incredibly small amount of clubs that could even afford him regardless of his status at Juventus. And since PSG look to be the only ones who could afford him, then that means the likelihood of Ronaldo staying is just that much more.

Notice there is no mention of Manchester United. There is no mention of Real Madrid. Basically, if Ronaldo is going to leave, the place he will go — at least according to Di Marzio as of this report — is Paris and sign with PSG, the club that has as much money as anybody and obviously doesn’t shy away from spending a whole lot of cash whenever they feel like it.

Obviously, we don’t know what’s going to happen at this point because this is Ronaldo we’re talking about and he’s not going to let something about his future slip. We can speculate all we want and will take the quotes from new Juve Director of Football Federico Cherubini at face value because that’s all we can do right now. But, with how few options there are out there that can take on the kinds of demands Ronaldo will have, the fact that he could stay and see out the final year of his contract is very much a possibility.

So we continue to wait. It’s just how things go right now when it comes to some of the most important things surrounding both Juventus and the club’s transfer activities.