Cristiano Ronaldo has reportedly grown bored with his contract wrangling at Real Madrid, and is now a mega money target for French big spenders, AS Monaco.
According to an ‘exclusive’ report in The Independent, “Monaco are ready to make a world record €100 million (£85m) bid” for CR7.
The paper says that with two years of his contract left to run, Ronaldo has “become disillusioned with life” after four seasons at the Bernabeu.
Sensing an opportunity to send shock waves through the football world, Monaco are now preparing a bid to add the Portuguese goal machine to their increasingly star studded line-up.
They have already lavished more than £110 million on Radamel Falcao of Atletico Madrid and James Rodriguez and Joao Moutinho of Porto, as their billionaire Russian owner, Dmitry Rybolovlev, seeks to fast track their development into a European football powerhouse.
The Independent has rehashed the old saw that CR7 “feels underappreciated” at Real Madrid, and wants a pay rise that will see him earn more than his “great rival Lionel Messi.”
Los Blancos are desperate to keep Ronaldo, who is their biggest star and best player by far.
But if contract negotiations with the player and his representatives fail to bear fruit by late July, Monaco will apparently make their move to sign Ronaldo.
CR7 is already the world’s most expensive player, having joined Madrid from Manchester United for £80m in 2009.
And Monaco would have to break the record on CR7 again, if they are serious about signing him.
The worst and best case scenario for Real Madrid, should Ronaldo actually leave for France, is that theywould then have more than enough money to bid for their own reported top transfer targets, Premier League stars Luis Suarez and Gareth Bale.