Serie A giants AC Milan and Inter Milan were offered the services of Manchester United striker Cristiano Ronaldo this summer, according to reports in Italy, but both San Siro sides considered the striker too expensive.
But with the Premier League season now in full swing, Ronaldo remains a United player and has struggled to find a team willing to fork out a bumper salary to bring him in.
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He was sounding out the possibility of Ronaldo returning to Italy, as the Portugal international was taken by the idea of living in Milan and playing in the Champions League at San Siro.
However, any chance of a move soon “evaporated” due to Ronaldo’s €24 million per year net salary.
To make matters worse, neither Milan club would have been able to access the tax benefits of Italy’s ‘Growth Decree’, as Juventus did, because Ronaldo didn’t maintain his Italian residence after leaving Turin last summer.
That would have meant the total gross cost of Ronaldo’s annual salary would have been around €45m, far too much for either club.
Ronaldo has also been linked with the likes of Sporting Lisbon, Atletico Madrid and Chelsea, but United remain determined to keep hold of their star man.
The veteran returned to Old Trafford last summer after three years in Italy with Juventus, where he won two Serie A titles and the Coppa Italia.
He was the Red Devils’ top scorer in 2021/22, netting 24 goals in all competitions, but there were widespread debates around how beneficial he was to the team’s tactics after they slumped to a sixth-place Premier League finish.
Erik ten Hag came in as the new United manager this summer, but the Dutchman has got off to a disastrous start.
Ronaldo played the full 90 minutes against the Bees and was unable to influence proceedings in his first start of the season.
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