Juves 8-year plan behind the Ronaldo transfer

Last summer, Italy’s serial champion Juventus Turin caused a sensation on the transfer market. Cristiano Ronaldo (34) switched to Serie A for 117 million euros. Hardly anyone had seriously expected this commitment…

For those responsible, however, the Ronaldo deal was only the logical consequence of a long-term eight-year plan!

“Ronaldo was the endpoint of the plan that we had started eight years earlier with the commitment of Mirko Vucinic,” Juve official Paolo Aicardi told the “AS”. The Montenegrin attacker switched from league competitor AS Rome to the Old Lady in 2011 for 15 million euros. At that time Juve had been in the league for eight years without a title…

The Vucinic commitment should only be the beginning. “We went on afterwards, bringing in players like Carlos Tevez or Sami Khedira. These transfers have shown that Juve can buy great players,” Aicardi continues. Coach Maurizio Sarri’s team has now become serial champions and one of the best teams in the world.

“When Cristiano arrived, it was clear that any player could now prefer Juventus to Real, Barça or ManUnited,” Aicardi is proud of the development. The first proof: the commitment of mega-talent Matthijs de Ligt (20), who came from Ajax Amsterdam in the summer. At the same time, the central defender also turned down interested clubs such as PSG and Barça.

And what happens next? “Our next plan is to get a new Cristiano Ronaldo, but in a younger version,” reveals Aicardi. He doesn’t give any concrete names. Salzburg shooting star and goal scorer Erling Haaland (19) could be one of those, but Juve (still) cancelled before moving to Austria in January 2019.