Cristiano Ronaldo arrives for showdown talks with Manchester United amid ongoing transfer saga

Cristiano Ronaldo arrived at Carrington on Tuesday, to have showdown talks with Manchester United for the first time, since asking for a transfer. The Portugal captain has been heavily linked to Atletico Madrid and boyhood club Sporting Lisbon and is reportedly seeking UEFA Champions League football.

The 37-year-old didn’t travel for the Premier League side’s pre-season tour due to family reasons but landed in Manchester on Monday evening to discuss his future.

The striker joined United for a reported fee of around 15 million euros ahead of the 2021-22 transfer window. Finishing as the team’s top-scorer, he bagged 24 goals and three assists but failed to secure Champions League qualification due to United finishing sixth in the league standings.

Although Ronaldo recently denied a transfer to Sporting, a coach from the club stated that the attacker could arrive. Speaking to Record, Barao said, “I believe that Cristiano will come”.

Meanwhile, Portugal and United teammate Bruno Fernandes decided to stay away from the transfer saga, on being asked about Ronaldo’s future. Speaking to mirror.co.uk, he said, “Obviously we have to respect the decision of everyone”.

“I don’t know what Cristiano said to the club, to the manager, I don’t know what he’s going into his head, but we have to respect his space. From everything we know, he had some family problems, so we have to respect his space, give him some space and that’s it.”

“Cristiano was our top scorer last season, he added goals to us, but obviously it’s not on me, it’s the club that has to make the choices and Cristiano makes his own choice.”

“As I said, I don’t know what’s going on in his head, if he wants to leave, it’s all news, I didn’t ask them that. The only thing I asked Cristiano, when he didn’t turn up, was if everything was okay with the family, he told me what was going on, that’s it and nothing more,” he further added.