OneFootball
Alex Mott·4 June 2020
OneFootball
Alex Mott·4 June 2020
Cristiano Ronaldo is not a man that is easily humbled.
But that’s exactly what the Juventus crowd did to the five-time Ballon d’Or winner on April 3, 2018.
Real Madrid had booked their place in the quarter-finals after a throughly convincing 5-2 aggregate win over Paris Saint-Germain in the last 16.
The Italian champions waited for Zinedine Zidane’s men in the last eight, but in a bear-pit Turin atmosphere Los Blancos proved exactly why they were back-to-back winners.
The Spanish side ran out 3-0 winners but it was the second of those goals that would have a seismic impact on football just three months later.
After winning a third straight Champions League final in Kyiv, Ronaldo would shock the football world by announcing his intention to leave Santiago Bernabèu after nearly a decade of service.
Now the race was on for his signature.
Could a return to Manchester United be on the cards? Would the riches of Paris Saint-Germain persuade Ronnie to give France a go?
Did the prospect of a few easy years in MLS or the Middle East tickle the Portuguese’s fancy?
No, none of that came to pass. Instead, Ronaldo remembered the crowd reaction from Turin and opted for Serie A instead.