Juventus sporting director Fabio Paratici admits “I thought it was a joke” when Jorge Mendes told him Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to sign.
The Portuguese joined the Bianconeri from Real Madrid for €100m in the summer, but the deal had been in the works for some time.
“Ronaldo is Ronaldo, there’s not much else to say,” Paratici said at the Dubai International Sports Conference.
“We’re happy with him, and not just from a technical point of view. He works so hard every day and is an example.
Juventus sporting director Fabio Paratici admits “I thought it was a joke” when Jorge Mendes told him Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to sign.
The Portuguese joined the Bianconeri from Real Madrid for €100m in the summer, but the deal had been in the works for some time.
“Ronaldo is Ronaldo, there’s not much else to say,” Paratici said at the Dubai International Sports Conference.
“We’re happy with him, and not just from a technical point of view. He works so hard every day and is an example.
“When you see the guy who’s number one working like that, everyone feels obliged to do the same thing.
“It all happened very quickly. It was a historic transfer, and we need to thank the President and Real Madrid, because selling a player like that isn’t easy.
“The first contact was in the Champions League quarter-finals, Jorge Mendes told me that Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to sign for Juventus.
“I thought it was a joke, then we met to discuss Cancelo and he brought Ronaldo up again. At that point I realised we could try, and I went to talk to [President Andrea] Agnelli.
“It wasn’t easy, but he was immediately positive from a technical point of view, as well as the player’s motivation and what he could bring to our brand.
“After a few hours he called me back and told me to try.”
How did Massimiliano Allegri react?
“When I told the Coach he was very happy, he’s a lucky Coach. Allegri talked about it with the commercial directors, we looked at the numbers and decided it would be advantageous to proceed.”