As you may be aware, Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave Manchester United and Napoli have been named as one of his possible destinations.
The Italian side would be pulling off a major coup in signing the Portugal icon, even in his current iteration, and while reports have made it clear a deal is unlikely, they’re still seemingly an option.
Journalist Enzo Bucchioni covers that today on Tuttomercatoweb, insisting a deal is unlikely but not something to be ‘dismissed out of hand’.
He explains that it is Jorge Mendes who is ‘setting everything in motion’ and when the super-agent moves, the numbers usually end up working. That’s how Napoli remain in the picture for Ronaldo.
They’ve been brought into the mix for various reasons but largely because Mendes has a good relationship with Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis.
The latter is a ‘man of cinema’ who loves signing showcase players for Napoli, something he’s done before but is yet to do this summer.
Now that Kalidou Koulibaly, Lorenzo Insigne, Dries Mertens and David Ospina have all departed it would be ‘strange’ if the president, who is ‘attentive to image, marketing’ and everything else didn’t look for a big name signing.
Getting Ronaldo from Manchester United would fall into that and Mendes has ‘stepped in’ and phone De Laurentiis about a possible deal.
In Bucchioni’s eyes, signing Ronaldo would be ‘in the realm of Maradona’ and one of the greatest transfers the Italian side have ever pulled off.
The economic aspect is a problem, though, as the €8m salary Ronaldo commands is out of Napoli’s parameters. At this moment, a deal is ‘economically unsustainable’.
Mendes is more than aware of that and so he is working to make ends meet and turn the unsustainable, sustainable. De Laurentiis, meanwhile, ‘would do anything’ to get Ronaldo as far as Bucchioni is concerned.
He believes that Napoli will be working behind the scenes, looking for sponsors, backers and avenues to finance the deal with Manchester United and Ronaldo. The player, according to him, likes the idea of a move to Naples.
The journalist adds that while Ronaldo is not a Napoli player in any regard, it could still work. And De Laurentiis could even be tempted to pay him €8m for a year because it could end up making him profit in terms of image.
It’s all very much ifs and buts at this point, as is everything with Ronaldo, but a move to Napoli is very much an option and everyone is working behind the scenes to make the money side of it work out.
