Cristiano Ronaldo has said his goodbye to his Juventus teammates and will miss training on Friday as he nears an exit from the club.
The 36-year-old spent an hour and a half at Juve’s Continassa training ground on Friday morning to empty his locker and bid farewell to the squad before they took to the pitch for a training session.
Manchester City are in talks to sign the 36-year-old after Sky in Italy reported his agent Jorge Mendes told Juventus on Thursday night he no longer wants to play for the club.
Ronaldo is in the final year of his contract in Turin and the Italian giants are asking any suitor to pay a €25m (£21.3m) transfer fee, which could be a major stumbling block along with his £500,000-per-week wages at the Allianz Stadium.
Juventus are yet to receive an official bid for Ronaldo. There is still some way to go before a deal can be concluded and time is tight to complete a deal before Tuesday’s transfer window deadline.
Sky in Italy is reporting City are willing to offer Ronaldo a two-year contract, with a salary of £12.8m-per-season (€15m).
He was not in City’s plans this summer but he is an option they are considering after the Premier League champions missed out on signing England captain Harry Kane from Tottenham.
Ronaldo was a surprise omission from Juve’s starting 11 in their 2-2 draw at Udinese on Sunday and he came off the bench to score a 94th-minute winner which was ruled out by VAR for a marginal offside.
The 36-year-old wants to carry on playing at the highest level for as long as possible, but not everyone at City is convinced the former Manchester United player is what they need.
Ronaldo joined Juventus from Real Madrid in 2018 for a fee in the region of £105m and he has scored 101 goals in 134 games for the club, helping them to two Serie A titles, one Coppa Italia crown and two Italian Super Cups.
Juventus, who want to sell Ronaldo before his contract expires next summer, are in advanced talks to sign Moise Kean from Everton, who scored 17 goals in 41 games while on loan at Paris-Saint Germain last season.