Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo (left) and Gareth Bale take part in a training session at Turk Telekom Arena in Istanbul yesterday. Real Madrid will face Galatasaray in their Champions League match in Istanbul, today.
MADRID: Cristiano Ronaldo’s unstoppable goal-scoring netted him a world record pay packet when he signed a contract renewal tying him to Real Madrid until 2018, Spain’s press said yesterday.
Real gave no financial details of the 28-year-old striker’s contract and estimates in the Spanish press varied widely.
Top-selling sports paper Marca said he would earn 17m euros ($23m) net a year; El Mundo said he secured 18m euros net including easily reached bonuses; and sports daily AS said he would receive 21m euros net.
“How could I not love you?” ran the headline on Marca’s front page across a photograph of Real Madrid president Florentino Perez embracing a grinning Ronaldo after the deal was signed on Sunday.
The agreement extinguished rumours that Ronaldo could make a sensational return to Manchester United when his former contract expired in 2015. He had left Old Trafford to join Madrid in 2009 for a then world record 94m euros.
It also meant Real got to keep their most prized asset.
“When a footballer spends four years scoring a goal in every one of the 200 games he plays and one day he sits down to discuss his contract with his club, you are talking about capitulation more than renewal,” football analyst Carlos Carpio wrote in Marca.
“It is easy. The player asks and the club pays.”
Rival sports paper AS said Ronaldo’s performance had not brought the club the trophy haul it hoped for, with one Liga victory, one domestic King’s Cup and one Super Cup but it added that without his 203 goals in four years the club would have had nothing.
“Cristiano is staying until 2018 and that’s a blessing. For Madrid fans and for the player. Obrigado (‘Thank you’ in Portuguese),” wrote the paper’s football commentator Tomas Roncero.
Catalan sports papers, which tend to focus on the fortunes of Barcelona, took the Ronaldo deal in their stride.
Barcelona-based Mundo Deportivo did not mention the Ronaldo contract on its front page.
Rival Barcelona-based sports paper Sport ran the headline: “Cristiano is not sad anymore,” a reference to Ronaldo’s comment in September last year that he was “sad” in Real, sparking departure rumours.
Inside, the paper asked its readers: “Does Cristiano deserve to earn 18 million?”
Meanwhile, Real Madrid Assistant Manager Paul Clement said Gareth Bale and Ronaldo, the world’s two most expensive footballers will have no trouble forming a potent partnership.
Both scored in Real’s 2-2 draw with Villarreal in La Liga on Saturday as Bale made his eagerly-awaited debut having signed from Tottenham Hotspur in a record 100m euro deal.
Portuguese forward Ronaldo, who signed a new five-year deal with Real remains the fulcrum of the side and is unlikely to be handing over free kick responsibility to the Welshman.
However, despite the high-profile of both players Englishman Clement, who also worked with Real coach Carlo Ancelotti at Chelsea and Paris St Germain, says there will be no ego clash.
“There’ll be no issue between those two, none at all,” Clement was quoted in British newspapers which carried extensive coverage of Bale’s opening game in La Liga.
“Good players like to work with good players. They’ll help each other to achieve things for the club, I’m sure, and if they keep scoring, everyone will be happy.”
Bale lasted an hour before being substituted and Clement said fans should be patient with the Welshman whose pre-season has been disrupted by the drawn-out transfer to Madrid.
“He seemed to grow when that goal went in,” Clement, who is helping Bale communicate with the non English speaking players in the squad, said. Agencies
