6 reasons Juventus should sell Cristiano Ronaldo this summer

ALLIANZ STADIUM, TURIN, ITALY - 2019/05/19: Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus FC looks dejected during the Serie A football match between Juventus FC and Atalanta BC. The match ended ina 1-1 tie. (Photo by Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images)
ALLIANZ STADIUM, TURIN, ITALY - 2019/05/19: Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus FC looks dejected during the Serie A football match between Juventus FC and Atalanta BC. The match ended ina 1-1 tie. (Photo by Nicolò Campo/LightRocket via Getty Images) /
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LUXEMBOURG, LUXEMBOURG – NOVEMBER 17: Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal looks on during the UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifier between Luxembourg and Portugal on November 17, 2019 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg. (Photo by TF-Images/Getty Images)
LUXEMBOURG, LUXEMBOURG – NOVEMBER 17: Cristiano Ronaldo of Portugal looks on during the UEFA Euro 2020 Qualifier between Luxembourg and Portugal on November 17, 2019 in Luxembourg, Luxembourg. (Photo by TF-Images/Getty Images) /

When Juventus signed Cristiano Ronaldo last summer it appeared to be the start of a new era at Juve.

Instead, we have just gotten another year and a half of disappointment while Juve has struggled in the Champions League and put together countless sloppy, underwhelming performances. This year, Ronaldo hasn’t even been able to keep up a high level of play for himself and that is just one the reasons why Juventus should move on from their most expensive player this summer.

His Focus Appears To Be Shifting Away From Juventus

You see it in every sport. As players age, they begin to focus more on the legacy they will leave behind. Cristiano Ronaldo will certainly leave behind an incredible legacy, but with his 35th birthday quickly approaching, it seems that he is trying to find a way to separate himself from Lionel Messi.

Ronaldo’s supporters have two things to support their side of the argument over who actually is the world’s best player. Those two things have been his unbelievable Champions League success and his success with Portugal. For his legacy to overshadow Messi’s, he’ll need to continue to pull away from Messi in those two areas. However, he seems to be focusing much more on one of those areas than the other.

Maybe the problem is that he doesn’t believe Juventus can actually help him find more Champions League success this season. He has seemed disinterested and lethargic with the club all season, even when playing in the Champions League. Maybe he is actually just human and slowing down in his mid 30s. Whatever the issue is, it hasn’t shown when he is on international duty.

In fact, Ronaldo has scored in every match he has played with Portugal since the start of the club season, scoring 11 total goals during that time. For comparison, he has scored on 7 goals for Juventus this season in more than 2.5x as many appearances as he has with the national team. You might think that this is because of the level of opposition he is playing against (he has demolished Lithuania twice), but the fact of the matter is he has actually barely faced tough competition for Juve this season. Inter Milan is the only team Juve has played this year who is currently in the top 5 of the table and he missed the match against 6th place Atalanta (an issue I’ll return to shortly). Ronaldo has, however, gotten to play against 6 teams in the bottom half of Serie A and hasn’t looked nearly as impressive as he does when he’s crushing cans with Portugal.

The most troubling sign of his shift in focus came just a couple of weeks ago. He was subbed off early in consecutive matches for Juventus because of injury concerns just before the international. He then proceeded to go play 173 minutes over two matches for Portugal when they didn’t even remotely need him to secure qualification for the Euro against Lithuania and Luxembourg. Then he came out and said that he wasn’t 100% and proceeded to miss Juve’s away match against Atalanta right after the break to make sure he was healthy for the Champions League. If his focus was really on succeeding with Juve, is there any chance that he would have spent the international break padding his stats against sub par competition while he was injured? Keep in mind, this is the same guy who didn’t play for Portugal during an international break last season because he was in a scoring drought and wanted to turn things around.

The truth is, Cristiano Ronaldo is making it clear that Juventus isn’t his top priority right now.