Cristiano Ronaldo has enlisted his lawyers to collect arrears from his former club Juventus, it has been reported La Gazzetta dello Sport. According to the Italian sports newspaper, this concerns an amount of approximately 19.9 million euros in bonuses and salaries. Ronaldo would still be entitled to the money, as Juventus asked its players to wait with payouts during the corona pandemic to keep their heads above water.
Juventus is currently going through a particularly chaotic period. The entire management of the Turin club resigned on Monday after it became known that investigations are underway into possibly overestimating players and making black payouts during the corona pandemic. Officially would la Vecchia Signora have not made any payouts during that pandemic, but it remains to be seen whether this was not done secretly after all. In any case, this does not seem to be the case with Ronaldo, as he has put his lawyers to work.
The 37-year-old star player would, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport have entrusted a lawyer known to him to review the criminal proceedings related to Juventus’ ‘salary maneuver’. In 2020 and 2021, during the height of the pandemic, Juventus would have asked its players to wait “several months” to receive their funds in order to face the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.
The story has a complex background. For example, players who agreed to postpone their payments would have hoped for better prospects for a contract extension. For that reason, for example, Paulo Dybala, Leonardo Bonucci and Juan Cuadrado have agreed to the proposal of the current number three of the Serie A. Ronaldo and his lawyers have been given permission by the Italian public prosecutor to inspect the relevant documents . Those documents would be in the hands of lawyer Federico Restano, but not with Serie A or the Italian Football Federation FIGC.
Intercepted call
Those documents reportedly state that Ronaldo would be entitled to a bonus and back monthly salaries even in the event of an early departure. According to Ronaldo, that money was never paid out. For that reason, he has entrusted a lawyer to receive at least part of the 19.9 million euros. It is striking that Maurizio Arrivabene, owner of Juventus, denies owing any amount of money to Ronaldo. In an intercepted phone call from Arrivabene in August 2021, which is in the hands of the Turin public prosecutor, he said that he did not believe there were any arrears to Ronaldo. “As far as I know, we have no debts to Ronaldo.”