For a brief while, there were claims that Jorge Mendes was trying to manufacture a deal between Manchester United and Napoli, with Cristiano Ronaldo going one way and Victor Osimhen the other.
That was quickly put to bed, with some close to the Nigeria international making it clear the player wanted to stay in Naples and play the Champions League.
Others reported that Ronaldo, despite wanting to leave Manchester United, wasn’t overly convinced by Napoli, whom he felt would struggle to get out of the groups stages of the elite European competition.
Corriere del Mezzogiorno look back at all of this on Friday, and explain ‘the conditions set by the Napoli president’, being Aurelio De Laurentiis, ‘did not convince’ the Red Devils.
Manchester United ‘could have pushed to €80m maximum’ for the striker as well as ‘the loan of Cristiano Ronaldo with the salary paid at 50%’.
However, this was still too much for Napoli, whose aim this window was to lower their wage bill, meaning they were in no position to pay €17m gross.
Therefore, a deal was never struck, and Cristiano Ronaldo seems stuck at Manchester United for the time being, at least until January.
