When most people saw claims from England that Pep Guardiola is set to be awarded a new Manchester City contract, worth around €23m a year, their first reaction won’t have been… that’s bound to annoy Cristiano Ronaldo.
But then most people aren’t Don Balon.
It’s not even an opinion piece, Don Balon claim as fact that Ronaldo has learned of Guardiola’s new contract and that it’ll be worth more than his own deal at Real Madrid.
It’s something Ronaldo ‘does not intend to consent’ to. That doesn’t mean the Portuguese international has a power of veto over Guardiola’s Manchester City contract, even Don Balon aren’t that crazy (there’s time), but that Ronaldo will use it to pressure Florentino Perez.
This leads to Don Balon’s claim ‘Pep Guardiola gets Florentino Perez in a mess with a star of Real Madrid’.
And just to ram it home, there’s this added: ‘Cristiano Ronaldo has already made it very clear to Florentino Perez a thousand and one times: it is not acceptable that his income is lower than Messi’s. And, of course, that it’s also less than what Pep Guardiola is going to charge. Therefore, the Portuguese is preparing an offensive by land, sea and air to get the president of Real Madrid to finally put his salary at the height of what, from his point of view, he deserves for some time.’
Despite this being Don Balon and almost certainly plucked from their imagination, it’s not beyond the realms of believability that Ronaldo and his agent Jorge Mendes would use the upcoming Manchester City contract as an extra pressure lever on Perez.
