Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis insists his club were offered the chance to sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid.
The Portuguese is joining the Partenopei’s Serie A rivals Juventus for a fee of around €100m, following nine years at the Bernabeu.
However, reports yesterday surfaced that the 33-year-old’s initial preference was to move to the San Paolo.
And speaking to La Repubblica, De Laurentiis admitted he had had the opportunity to sign Ronaldo – but, owing to financial reasons, he refused.
Napoli President Aurelio De Laurentiis insists his club were offered the chance to sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid.
The Portuguese is joining the Partenopei’s Serie A rivals Juventus for a fee of around €100m, following nine years at the Bernabeu.
However, reports yesterday surfaced that the 33-year-old’s initial preference was to move to the San Paolo.
And speaking to La Repubblica, De Laurentiis admitted he had had the opportunity to sign Ronaldo – but, owing to financial reasons, he refused.
“Ronaldo was offered to Napoli. Mendes, his agent, telephoned me,” the film producer confirmed.
“We planned to make an offer and we would have paid CR7 with a percentage of the funds guaranteed by his arrival.
“The €350m [wages included] that Juventus will invest is beyond our reach. We would have risked pushing the club towards bankruptcy.”
Ronaldo has signed a four-year contract with the Old Lady, reportedly on wages of over €500,000 per week.