The League circuit has witnessed a lot of action behind the scenes of late. Lionel Messi’s emotional outburst following his exit from the Barcelona FC will go down as an unforgettable moment in the history of LaLiga and his move to Paris Saint Germain will always be a painful blow for the Catalan Club supporters. The uncertainty over Kylian Mbappe’s future after the end of his tenure with the PSG still looms large as it is not clear whether the club will retain him or not with several deals falling like nine pins for the last few weeks. In the midst of these developments in the league football arena, another major event takes place: Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to Manchester United after 12 years. It is pretty much clear that Messi reluctantly left Barca as Financial Fair Play rules would have made his presence in the club untenable. However, Ronaldo’s decision was prompted by Juventus’ inability to fully utilize the potential of the Portuguese star and a barrage of calls and messages from former United managers and players.
The Five-time winner of Ballon d’Ors rejoins the place where he won the honour for the first time. It is being reported that Sir Alex Ferguson’s call was primarily responsible for Ronaldo to come back to Man United. Dissimilar to Messi, Ronaldo was itching for a move from Juventus, which was clueless about his role in the team. According to Jose Mourinho, Juventus got a nuke in the form of Ronaldo but were listless regarding what to do with the same. Hence, Ronaldo parted ways amicably with Juventus despite having a contract of one more year with the club.
Now, the question is how does the presence of a player of such stature benefit the club? Previously, the star player had won English Premier League thrice for the United while he was with the club from 2003-09. Since 2013, the club has not won the title even once. This might be one of the reasons why Man United has brought back the GOAT. “I cannot wait to play at Old Trafford in front of a full stadium and see all the fans again. I’m looking forward to joining up with the team after the international games, and I hope we have a very successful season ahead,” said Ronaldo after signing the deal.
The United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was equally ecstatic at the prospect of the return of Ronaldo as he said the Portuguese star player is not only a great footballer but a great human being. As per Solskjaer, the experience that a player of his calibre brings in will immensely benefit other players in the United as well. We have no option but to wait as only time will tell whether the move by the United turns out to be a masterstroke or a huge setback. By signing Ronaldo, United has simply lost the opportunity to get on board an incredibly talented striker next year. Hence for the sake of Solskajaer and Ronaldo, we can only hope that the transfer move pays rich dividends for the United in the future.
