6 reasons Juventus should sell Cristiano Ronaldo this summer

Juve Never Really Needed Him To Begin With

At the time Juventus signed Ronaldo, Juventus was coming off of a season where they averaged more than 2 goals per match in Serie A and scored multiple goals in 6 of their 10 Champions League matches (with 3 of the matches where they didn’t coming against Barcelona and Real Madrid). Paulo Dybala scored 22 goals in Serie A that season, while Gonzalo Higuain scored 16 and Higuain added 5 in the Champions League. Juve’s squad clearly had no problem scoring and already had 2 strikers who were capable of carrying the scoring burden for a top-tier squad. That team’s shortcomings had absolutely nothing to do with the attack, which also featured the dynamic Douglas Costa and the huge aerial threat presented by Mario Mandzukic. For Ronaldo to succeed upon his signing at least one of these players was going to suffer (as it turned out, Higuain was sold and Dybala struggled all season).

Ronaldo’s signing was more about the commercial prospects that accompany signing a player with his level of popularity. It opened up new markets to Juve and quickly increased the club’s value, even if it didn’t actually make the squad perform any better. Signing Ronaldo helped Juventus look like a favorite to win the Champions League, but instead, it forced them to neglect the areas of the squad that actually needed to be strengthened. In the end, the price of Ronaldo ensured that Juve wouldn’t be able to make the signings they actually needed to make themselves contenders for Europe’s most important trophy once again and instead just added some talent to an already strong attack.