Manchester return from Real Madrid rumoured for Ronaldo

Manchester City are reportedly willing to pay as much as £180m in order to sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid.

Ronaldo already owns the world transfer record following his £80m move to Real Madrid from Manchester United, but the Spanish giants could more than double their money on the Portuguese forward after just two seasons.

However, Ronaldo has scored 51 goals in all competitions this season and they will struggle to replace this sort of record, regardless of how much money they were offered.

Manchester City do have significant ammunition to buy the world’s best players thanks to the wealth of their owners and the fact that they can now offer Champions League football only enhances the chances of such deals taking place.

And the signing of a player of the calibre of Ronaldo would certainly make them more of a force and shorten their current Premier League odds of 9/2 to win the title next season.

Spanish newspaper AS has indicated that Manchester City would almost double Ronaldo’s current salary from £9m a season to £17m, but agreeing a transfer fee could prove the biggest problem.

When signing Ronaldo, Real Madrid put a release clause of £1b on his contract, primarily as a deterrent to a club even with the wealth of Manchester City, which has been described by AS an an ‘anti Sheikh clause’.

If Roberto Mancini or Sheikh Mansour were particularly keen to bring Ronaldo back to Manchester then they do have the ability to offer Carlos Tevez in any deal, who is a known target of Real Madrid.

But the early reports coming out of Eastlands are that the speculation is unjust.

A Manchester City official has said: “Speculation linking the club with Ronaldo is ill-informed and unfounded and nothing other than mischief-making,” said a City official this morning.

“Whilst there is no doubt that Ronaldo is one of the world’s greatest players, he is not on the club’s list of transfer targets.”

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