Ronaldo At Juve – A Success Or Failure? | OneFootball

Despite leaving the Allianz in 2021, there’s been significant debate about how Cristiano’s time at Juve fairs compared to the rest of his star-studded CV. To say Ronaldo has been a failure anywhere is a fallacy. Still, for the standards he set, especially at Real Madrid, many believe his time at Juventus culminated in a lacklustre three years. Others beg to differ and believe he offered something unique.

Financially speaking, the EPL carries much more weight than the Serie A, so the gambling companies offering odds on his next club initially had Juventus as ranked outsiders. At the time, it felt like he would stay at Real Madrid.

It felt more like a power play than anything else until he officially announced he was looking for a new challenge. The signing became global news when Juventus announced it out of the blue. It was the biggest signing in Italian football for a generation, and it gave many Juve fans the belief that their first Champions League since 1996 was around the corner.

The Business Of Cristiano

Ronaldo is a phenomenon both on and off the field; his extensive reach into a wide variety of businesses and ideas has helped him transform and become more prominent than football. The Portuguese icon is a fan of swimming and playing video games and has been seen frequenting casinos from time to time.

Although Ronaldo has fallen short of endorsing gambling companies, it does show that there’s been a change in rhetoric. Twenty years ago, a sportsman of his stature probably wouldn’t throw his weight behind casino gaming or be seen in a casino, just from a PR and public perception.

Now that online casinos have become a multi-billion dollar industry in their own right and sponsor dozens of sporting events, playing at an online casino for real money is something more notable figures are getting behind. While Ronaldo’s ventures stop at poker, online casino adverts have become more prevalent in football. Given how big the business is getting, it’s not a surprise to see more big names in football put their weight behind online casinos.

Cristiano recently became the first person to hit one billion followers on social media, which is a staggering feat. His multiple business ventures have increased his net worth to $600 million. He reportedly earns $4.45 million a week at Al-Nasr, which will continue expanding over the next 12 months.

Quickfire Stats – Cristiano At Juve

When he signed for La Vecchia Signora in 2018, the club shifted $60 million of shirts in 24 hours. The business and the numbers behind Ronaldo are pretty staggering.

Although he only spent three years at Juventus, Cristiano hit the ground running—winning two Serie A titles, a Copa Italia, and finishing runner-up in the Ballon d’Or. Ronaldo and other senior players were accused of ruining the balance in the dressing room, which is ultimately why his time in Turin came to a premature end, as we know.

Cristiano guarantees goals wherever he goes; you only need to look at his record at each club and his incredible international stats. However, there does seem to be a running theme that his ego can get the better of him. In Juventus’s case, although he finished as the club’s top scorer and became the first player to win the Golden Boot in the EPL, La Liga, and Serie A – his influence became so disruptive that the board was happy to see him go for a fraction of the price they paid for him just three years earlier.

Crunching The Numbers – A Final Say

If we examine Ronaldo’s stats, 81 goals in 98 games for Juve isn’t a failure, and for 99% of strikers, it’d be considered a phenomenal return. However, the club signed him intending to win the Champions League. While they dominated domestically, as they didn’t get anywhere near Europe’s top prize, some Juve fans and those on the board believe his overall Juve career didn’t meet expectations.

Some Juve fans are more than happy with the return. While he might have ended up going back to his former club, Manchester United, for a much smaller fee, Ronaldo brought Juve two Serie A titles, several domestic cup successes, and staggering shirt sales. So, really, it depends on what angle you’re looking at it from.

While it’s true Cristiano didn’t win the Champions League or Ballon d’Or with Juventus; his numbers still speak volumes about the three years he spent at the Allianz. Juventus haven’t won the Champions League for nearly 30 years, so to pin it all at the feet of Ronaldo is unfair – they’ve had several world-class players over this period who’ve played exceptionally well and won less than Cristiano did during his short stint. His time could’ve been marginally better; it could’ve been much worse, too.