Is £99m for 33-year-old Ronaldo good value for Juventus?

Cristiano Ronaldo has completed his 112m euros (£99.2m) move from Real Madrid to Juventus after 450 goals in 438 games for the club.

But can that possibly be good value for a 33-year-old? And is he in decline?

Where does the deal rank in all-time list?

Ronaldo's move to Juventus makes him the fourth most expensive player of all time (he is also the seventh for his 2009 move to Real from Manchester United) - third if you exclude Kylian Mbappe's expected 180m euros (£159m) move to Paris St-Germain.

It almost trebles the most expensive transfer fee ever for a player aged 30 or more. Leonardo Bonucci's reported 40m euros (£35.1m) move from Juventus to AC Milan last summer was the record.

Is Ronaldo in decline?

Not really. His 44 goals for Real Madrid last season was his third lowest total in nine years at the Bernabeu - but it was still exactly one goal per game. Including Portugal goals, 54 in total, it was his lowest scoring season for club and country since 2009-10. But he did manage 22 goals in his final 13 La Liga appearances...

He has won the past two Ballons d'Or for the world's top player - and four of the past five. He has also been named in the past 11 Fifa Fifpro World XI and Uefa Teams of the Year.

He has won the Champions League for three consecutive years - and has won the Golden Boot in that tournament in each of the past six seasons - including one season when he was joint top scorer - and also won it once 10 years ago with Manchester United.

Of his 15 goals last season, three were against Juventus including a sensation bicycle kick which earned him a standing ovation from the Juventus Stadium faithful.

As well as winning the Champions League Golden Boot, Ronaldo also managed to finish second top scorer in La Liga - despite scoring only four times in the first half of the season. He hit 22 league goals from January onwards, despite not playing in seven games.

He is still the second top scorer at the ongoing World Cup, with four goals including a hat-trick against Spain, despite Portugal's last-16 elimination. Those goals made him the second top scorer in the history of international football with 85.

£99m for a 33-year-old? 'A sensible signing financially'

Interesting, the answer is yes according to a football financial expert.

Rob Wilson of Sheffield Hallam University says: "Even at about £100m the marketing leverage that Juventus will be able to create will be significant. Added to that the likelihood that he will strengthen the team, it seems plausible that they will be more successful domestically and qualify routinely for the Champions League. That means more sponsors, more TV money and more prize money."

He thinks the money Juventus, who have won seven consecutive league titles, earn from Ronaldo "should more than cover the transfer fee and his wages. It should also attract other players and help with the younger members of the squad".

"Winning the Champions League can be worth as much as 100m euros (£88.5m) and he will undoubtedly help achieve goals like that. The added exposure and marketing potential make it a sensible signing, despite his age. I'm sure, barring significant injury, he has many years left at the top table."

What about his fitness?

The 44 games he played last season were the fewest since his opening Real Madrid season.

But he only missed two games because of injury last term and was rested for several domestic games as Real, who were never in the title race, concentrated on the Champions League.

He no longer has the legs of the swashbuckling wide player he once was, reinventing himself as a centre forward. Of his 44 Real appearances last season, 31 of them were as a striker with 13 on the wing. Back in 2013-14 he made only one centre-forward appearance.

In May, Ronaldo said: "Right now I have a biological age of 23. I've still got a long time left, I can keep playing until I'm 41."

During the World Cup, his Portugal coach Fernando Santos said: "He is like a Port wine. He knows how to refine his capacity and age at his best.

"He is constantly evolving, contradictorily to the other players. He knows himself and he knows what he can do.

"What he does now is not what he did three or four years ago, and not what he will be doing in a few years from now."

And his international boss thinks he could play at the next World Cup at the age of 37.

He added: "Cristiano is the best in the world and I hope in Qatar once again he is going to score in a World Cup."

Source: BBC NEWS

'One of the great goals you'll see' - the night Juventus rose to applaud Ronaldo

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane's reaction said it all.

Hand to his head, a look of disbelief on his face at what he had just seen, he turned and bellowed his approval. As a player, the Frenchman scored plenty of stunning goals himself in Turin - but what he had just witnessed from Cristiano Ronaldo was special.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekRxSvyqLFo

Ronaldo's second goal for the Spanish giants in their 3-0 Champions League quarter-final first-leg victory at Juventus was one of the great strikes - the 33-year-old Portuguese rising almost unnaturally high before acrobatically firing the ball into the corner of the net with an incredible bicycle kick.

Seconds after the ball hit the net, the Juve fans followed Zidane's lead, rising to applaud the man who has, in all likelihood, ended their interest in the Champions League for this season.

BBC Radio 5 live's Pat Nevin, who was at the game, was equally stunned. "When the ball comes across to him you think: 'Oh, you're not going to try an overhead kick.' And then, bang! Oh wow! Just see it, watch it," said the former Scotland winger.

"It is unnatural. People are talking about how Ronaldo is getting a bit older now - but there is nothing wrong with that body if he can do that sort of thing. The timing of it is extraordinary, the imagination to do it is extraordinary.

"A lot of the Juventus fans stayed behind to applaud Ronaldo. To turn around this coliseum to his side - wow. Call it genius if you like.

"It is one of the great goals you will see in football."

Ronaldo's goalscoring stats...

Another view...

'One of the great goals'

Cristiano Ronaldo looked like he could not quite believe what happened

"It is one of those ones where you just say: 'Oh, you're just egging it up a bit, you're exaggerating for pure commentary purposes,'" added Nevin.

"No, absolutely no. That is one of the great goals you will see… I was going to say Champions League football, but, basically, football.

"Talking about how high his foot is, when he goes for the kick there Mattia de Sciglio is jumping up to head the ball and Ronaldo's foot is above his head. It has to be seven and a half feet.

"I would love to be able to tell you how to score a goal like that, but I never have. But if you don't practise that and you try it in a game you can break your back. You need technique to get up and hit it - but you need to be able to land properly as well. He has all this in his mind and computes it in a millisecond. It is special.

"He knows how to time his form, usually when Real are looking to win something, like the Champions League. He also wants to win that Ballon d'Or. Normal humans don't think along those lines on a football pitch, they think about how to win a game. But he is so far ahead."

BBC World Service's John Bennett said: "I don't think he has scored a better goal than that.

"I remember the Porto one [for Manchester United in 2009]. It is how you judge great goals. The technique for that overhead kick makes it the greatest goal Ronaldo has ever scored."

'A Playstation goal' - what they said

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon: "Ronaldo is an extraordinary champion. Together with Lionel Messi, he is the only one that punctuates his team's most important victories, and is to be compared to [Diego] Maradona and Pele."

Juve defender Andrea Barzagli: "Cristiano made up the second goal. It's a Playstation goal. When you come up against one of the best in the world like Ronaldo, you need to be perfect. If you give him any space, he'll punish you. He scored a goal that will go down in history - and unfortunately it was against us."

Juventus coach Massimiliano Allegri: "I don't know if Cristiano's goal is the best in the history of football, but it's certainly an extraordinary goal. You can only congratulate him for what he's doing at present."

Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane: "Cristiano Ronaldo is different. He's a different player to everyone else and he always has this desire to do something extraordinary in the Champions League. He never rests on his laurels.

"His overhead kick was remarkable, yet he missed two much easier chances. That's football."

'Ronaldo can now leave Earth' - social media reaction

"Come on team," Cristiano Ronaldo modestly tweeted
Peter Crouch scored a famous bicycle kick of his own for Liverpool against Galatasaray...
BBC Match of the Day presenter and former England captain Gary Lineker was impressed
Another former England striker, Michael Owen, was also stunned
"Ronaldo can now leave Earth and play with Martians. He has done everything here," said former Real defender Alvaro Arbeloa

What you said on #bbcfootball...

Ed: I've always said Ronaldo's the best ever. He can score any type of goal and he'd arguably be the top scorer in every major league.

Josh: Is there anything Cristiano Ronaldo can't do? Not content with just being a goal machine he's gone and scored arguably the greatest goal in the history of the Champions League too... Wow, I have actually ran out of superlatives to describe this man!!!

Simon: Yeah, Ronaldo is good, but has he ever scored on a rainy night in Sto- oh, he actually has...

Fabian: Dear ladies and gentlemen, if you ever had doubts that Ronaldo wasn't the best player ever; please think again! WHAT A PLAYER!

'My goal was better...'

His manager may have been impressed by Ronaldo's goal, but we will leave the final say to Zidane, who also scored one of the great Champions League goals - a magnificent volley in the 2002 final for Real against Bayer Leverkusen.

Which goal was better he was asked...

"Oh mine! Definitely mine."

Source: BBC NEWS

Cristiano Ronaldo: Spanish FA uphold Real Madrid star's ban after Barcelona dismissal

Cristiano Ronaldo scored as Real Madrid beat Barcelona 3-1 in the first leg of the Spanish Super Cup at the weekend.

But the Portugal international made the headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Ronaldo was sent-off for two yellow cards but decided to take his frustration out on referee Ricardo de Burgos Bengoetxea.

He pushed the official and was immediately slapped with a five-game ban - four of those being for his treatment of the referee.

Ronaldo had launched an appeal but Spanish authorities have now decided to uphold his suspension.

Per the rules, the 32-year-old was given an automatic one-game ban for his dismissal at the Nou Camp.

But Ronaldo's decision to push Bengoetxea will rule him out of four more matches.

That means the former Manchester United star will be absent when Real go up against Barcelona in the second leg tonight.

However, given their dominance at the weekend, Zinedine Zidane's side are still favourites to win the Super Cup.

Ronaldo was introduced from the bench but Real looked stronge than their La Liga counterparts throughout.

Gerard Pique's own-goal gave them the lead, before Lionel Messi levelled from the spot after Luis Suarez had gone down easily in the penalty area.

Ronaldo then struck a stunner before his red card.

And wonderkid Marco Asensio added a third with a fine strike - and is expected to start tonight.

Source: Daily Express

Cristiano Ronaldo appears in court on tax charges

Footballer Cristiano Ronaldo has arrived at a Spanish court amid allegations he evaded millions in tax.

Prosecutors accuse Ronaldo, reported to be the world's highest paid athlete, of evading €14.7m ($17.3m; £13.1m) in tax since 2010.

The Real Madrid star has previously denied the allegation, saying his "conscience is clear".

Ronaldo, 32, is the latest in a string of footballers to be pursued by the Spanish tax authorities.

Argentina's Lionel Messi, who plays for Barcelona, was handed a 21-month prison sentence after being found guilty of the same charge last year.

Earlier this month, the court ruled he could pay €252,000 in place of jail time.

However, Messi was only accused of evading €4.1m in tax, €10.6m less than Ronaldo.

Ronalda arrived to give evidence at a court in the Madrid suburb of Pozuelo de Alarcon just before 11:00 local time (09:00 GMT) on Monday.

According to prosecutors, Ronaldo allegedly took "advantage of a company structure created in 2010 to hide income generated in Spain from his image rights from tax authorities" which was a "voluntary and conscious breach of his fiscal obligations in Spain".

Ronaldo's management have also denied the allegations.

But if the case is sent to trial and he is found guilty, the Portuguese forward could face a fine of "at least €28m" and a prison sentence of three-and-a-half years, the Gestha union of experts at Spain's Inland Revenue says.

Source: BBC NEWS