After weeks of speculation, Cristiano Ronaldo has finally arrived at Juventus.
The Portuguese forward arrived in Turin earlier this week and has been presented as a Juventus player. It’s official, Cristiano Ronaldo is a Juve man.
His move rocks the football world. It’s difficult to put Ronaldo’s time at Real Madrid into words, and there is no real need to.
The last nine years have been focused on his abundance of goals, his rivalry with Barcelona star Lionel Messi, four Champions League titles, five Ballon d’Ors, and some truly brilliant performances against Europe’s best sides, including his new club.
What does Ronaldo bring to Juventus?
The question is now what he brings to Juventus. For starters, we can expect goals, and probably a lot of them. Even at age thirty-three, the Portugal international comes off the back of a 44-goal season in 44 games.
He may no longer be able to take on multiple defenders at once, and single-handedly decide a game as he used to. But his ability to put the ball in the back of the net does not appear to be in any sort of decline.
Ronaldo will depend on service, but Juventus will certainly be able to provide it. Douglas Costa’s pace and crossing ability, along with the creativity of Paulo Dybala and Miralem Pjanic will be more than enough for him.
Juventus have the quality to get the ball to Ronaldo in the final third. He should have no problems taking care of the rest.
Where does Ronaldo fit in?
Where he fits into the team, regarding both the squad and the wage bill is a more concerning issue.
Ronaldo will start, no doubt, but Ronaldo may well be occupying more than Juan Cuadrado’s former squad number on the pitch. If he does play out wide, Cuadrado will have a far harder time finding minutes on the pitch.
Higuain has also been linked with an exit from Juventus. From a financial standpoint, this makes plenty of sense, but there is more to this than wages.
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If Allegri chooses to play Ronaldo in a more central role, the Portugal international could end up right in Higuain’s starting position up top.
However, it may be easy to overlook Mandzukic’s vulnerability in the team. Realistically, Ronaldo could slot right into the Croatian’s position out on the left wing. Both play out wide, but drift in as a target man.
With Ronaldo out on the left, Juventus can likely continue with their current tactical setup.
The money aspect is worrying.
Shifting to a financial perspective, Ronaldo will eat up plenty of the wage bill, and in this sense the move is a bit of a gamble. It may not be the wisest choice for Juventus to invest so much in a player who is 33 years of age, rather than younger players.
The Serie A champions will also want to afford other players of high quality and will need to do so in order to remain a force in Europe, even with Ronaldo in the side.
However, there is one factor worth noting when discussing the financial aspect of Ronaldo’s transfer and that is Juventus’ previous history with transfers.
The Italian club has a great recent history of transfer business that has seen excellent players arrive at the club for little to no cost.
Paul Pogba, Alturo Vidal, Sami Khedira, Miralem Pjanic, Paulo Dybala, Andrea Pirlo, Mario Mandzukic each joined the club for under thirty million.
Juventus owner Andrea Angelli has demonstrated his ability when it comes to bringing talent to the team while keeping it stable. If he judges that Ronaldo’s move to Turin works out, then it would be reasonable to assume that it would.
Where there’s Ronaldo, there’s a way.
But beyond all the negatives, Ronaldo’s signing is worth more than what he offers on the pitch. It is a statement that Juventus aim to be serious contenders at the top.
Though the lack of competition in Serie A can discourage top players from joining the Biancorini, a player of Ronaldo’s quality boosts Juventus’s image and in doing so may create a greater incentive for top players to make the move to Turin.
The impact of the move will be evident both on and off the pitch, as well as in the players who join the Old Lady in the forthcoming seasons. How it all ends up after Ronaldo’s retirement remains to be seen.
Regardless of all that though, Juventus and its supporters are all too aware of Ronaldo’s ability.
Their new number seven scored twice against them in the Champions League final two years ago and scored three times over two legs in the quarter finals last season, including a stunning bicycle kick in the first leg.
He has also scored against them multiple times in previous meetings. At the very least, Juventus won’t have to worry about facing him again.
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