Juventus CEO Maurizio Arrivabene suggested that the club do not owe any money to Cristiano Ronaldo.
Il Fatto Quotidiano details how the Bianconeri CEO was asked to explain the club’s position with Ronaldo to the Turin Public Prosecutor after it was revealed that they signed a secret agreement to pay him €19.9m after the squad’s salaries were suspended in the early stages of the COVID pandemic. Arrivabene noted that “to the best of my knowledge we have no debts with Ronaldo.”
Arrivabene was then called upon to clarify an intercepted phone call of his during the talks that saw Ronaldo move to Manchester United last summer, when the Bianconeri CEO referenced “debts of his salaries accrued with COVID.”
“They were probably the salaries stopped in COVID and then paid in the restart,” was Arrivabene’s explanation.
The intercepted phone call was dated on August 27 2021 and Arrivabene stated that the wages owed to Ronaldo would’ve been paid by then, saying: “I think so. As far as I remember, the subject of discussion was the monthly salaries for August and September 2021.”
La Gazzetta dello Sport reported today that Ronaldo has requested Juventus pay him the €19.9m owed and has tasked a team of lawyers to manage and oversee the situation.
Sporting director Federico Cherubini discussed the agreement with Ronaldo when speaking to former president Andrea Agnelli in late August 2021, saying: “€19m from the previous year and €9m from a year earlier, so €28m before taxes due to COVID.”