Huge claim made over Cristiano Ronaldo’s possible Man Utd return

Oli Fisher

Guillem Balague has dealt a blow to Manchester United’s chances of securing a return for Cristiano Ronaldo this summer.

The 33-year-old has been linked with a return to Old Trafford, with reports claiming that he is unhappy with his current level of pay as he wishes to earn as much as Neymar and Lionel Messi.

He sparked further speculation with his comments after Real’s 3-1 Champions League final win over Liverpool in Kiev.

But Sky transfer pundit Balague expects the two parties to find an agreement despite their obvious issues.

He revealed on his official YouTube channel: “In the changing room [after the final] Sergio Ramos told Cristiano Ronaldo, ‘Just stop it. Calm down. Stop it. Come out and apologise. Don’t worry about it, we’ll help you to get what you want.’

“And of course what he wants is that Real Madrid pays most of the tax bill which will be very, very big as he’s been accusing of defrauding about €40million (£35m) from the tax man.

“Also he wants to be ahead of Neymar and close to Messi in wages. Real Madrid have offered between €30-33m last month in the first meetings.

“This was a promise that was given a year ago by [club president] Florentino Perez that the contract will be renewed.

“Cristiano feels not loved by Florentino and feels that Real should have acted differently with him and this contract should have been sorted.

“It hasn’t happened yet and what Real Madrid put in that offer a month ago was a lot of individual and collective targets to reach that point of €33m net.

“He wants more, he wants €40m. He won’t get that but they are destined to understand each other and reach common ground.

“€1billion is his buy-out clause. It’s in Real’s hands to sell him. There’s no offers for Ronaldo.

“The same way there were no offers a year ago when there was a threat through a newspaper, A Bola, that he wanted to leave Spain. It was like a joker card that used.

“They’re destined to understand each other.”