Cristiano Ronaldo could leave Juventus for Real Madrid when the transfer window reopens this summer.
Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid is a romantic’s dream. The prospect of the Juventus star returning to the Bernabeu would excite supporters across the globe, while the notion of their former flame lifting them out of mediocrity certainly gets the blood pumping. And while a return to his old club still appears fanciful, it definitely can’t be ruled out.
Ronaldo first wanted to join Real Madrid in 2008.
After firing Manchester United to Champions League glory under Sir Alex Ferguson, he felt it was the right time to seek a new challenge elsewhere.
In the end, Ferguson talked him into staying at Old Trafford for another year. The Scot jetted off to Lisbon to visit his star forward and left with an agreement in principle to let him go 12 months down the line.
So, in 2009, Real finally landed their man.
And the rest, as they like to say, is history.
Ronaldo moved to La Liga for a world-record fee of £80million. At the time, some pondered whether Florentino Perez had overpaid.
While he’d done well for United in his final season at the Theatre of Dreams, his goal tally of 26 was 16 less than the 42 he’d managed the previous year.
But Ronaldo proved himself to be a juggernaut at Real, scoring 450 goals during a glittering nine-year spell while also propelling them to four Champions League crowns and two La Liga titles.
In the end, however, he decided to leave Spain for Italy with Juventus.
Ronaldo later elaborated on his decision, saying he felt Los Blancos didn’t want him around as they did before. He said: "I felt it inside the club, especially from the president, that they no longer considered me the same way that they did in the start."
"In the first four or five years there I had the feeling of being ‘ Cristiano Ronaldo’."
"The president looked at me through eyes that didn’t want to say the same thing, as if I was no longer indispensable to them, if you know what I mean."
"That’s what made me think about leaving. Sometimes I’d look at the news, where they were saying I was asking to leave."
"There was a bit of that but the truth is I always had the impression the president would not hold me back."
That saw Ronaldo’s relationship with Real crumble. Especially when the club fawned over Luka Modric winning the Ballon d’Or award in a way he felt they never did with himself.
But the 36-year-old has healed things with Perez, therefore taking the first steps towards a potential return.
Perez paid a visit to Juventus’ training ground back in January to talk to the 36-year-old, a sign that things are now much rosier between the pair.
And the Real president invited Ronaldo to watch the club’s El Clasico victory over Barcelona in March last year, with the Portugal international enjoying himself that day.
Perez reportedly feels Real made a mistake in selling the forward, who has scored over 30 goals for Juventus across all competitions this season.
And with his replacement, Eden Hazard, being plagued by injuries a potential return is still very much possible.
Real boss Zinedine Zidane admitted as such when speaking earlier in the week, confessing talk of Ronaldo making a sensational comeback ‘might be true’.
"Yes, it may be [true]," Zidane told Sky in Italy, when asked about the rumours linking Ronaldo with a return to Real.
"We know Cristiano, we know the person he is and everything he has done here."
"But now he's a Juventus player and we must respect this."