Manchester United are now in advanced talks with Cristiano Ronaldo over a £24 million (€28m/$33m) transfer from Juventus after Manchester City ended their interest in the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.
Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes offered the former Red Devils forward to City after they missed out top target Harry Kane, who decided to stay at Tottenham.
City decided against pursuing a move for the 36-year-old, and United have made an official bid to Juventus of £24m to bring Ronaldo back to Old Trafford.
In a press conference on Friday, Pep Guardiola suggested City’s squad will remain the same despite failing to replace Sergio Aguero who left for Barcelona at the end of last season.
“The position right now this is my feeling that I am more delighted with the squad I have and we will say the same,” said Guardiola.
“I am incredibly happy with the squad I have more than satisfied. We are the same squad except one player leaves Sergio and we have Jack [Grealish].”
“I don’t want to speculate too much. Cristiano is a legend of this club, he is the greatest player of all time,” said Solskjaer.
“He’s such a tremendous human being so let’s see what happens with him; everyone who’s played with him will have a soft spot for him.”
When pushed on whether or not United would be making a move for Ronaldo, he replied: “I didn’t think Cristiano would turn out leaving Juventus and it’s been speculation the last few days. We’ve always had good communication. I know Bruno [Fernandes] has been talking to him as well and he knows what we feel about him and If he was ever going to move away from Juventus he knows we’re here.”
Ronaldo transfer: The bigger picture
Juventus boss Max Allegri confirmed at his news conference that Ronaldo has no “intention of staying” with the Italian club.
He was seen leaving Juventus’ training ground on Friday morning while the rest of the team began their session, before boarding a private plane out of Turin.
City held some talks over the possibility of a deal but there was no agreement on terms between the player and club.
Ronaldo was believed to be open to a move to the Etihad Stadium despite saying in the past that he would never line up for one of the Red Devils’ main rivals.
Juventus are looking for a £24m transfer fee from any potential buyers, otherwise they would suffer a capital loss on their original deal to sign Ronaldo from Real Madrid in 2018.
Additional reporting by Jonathan Smith and Romeo Agresti.
