Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo has reportedly demanded an outstanding £17 million (R358 million) payment from one of his former teams after discussing the issue with his lawyers.
The latest reports regarding Ronaldo's playing future suggest that the 37-year-old is nearing a move to Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr after the completion of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
Read: Ronaldo's next move 'all but done'
The striker has been a big topic ever since he made scathing comments about his former club Manchester United during an explosive interview with British broadcaster Piers Morgan, which subsequently led to him mutually parting ways with the English outfit with seven months left on his contract.
With the player understood to have forfeited those seven months' worth of wages at Old Trafford in order to secure his abrupt departure, he is now said to be demanding a sizeable amount of money from the club he returned to the Red Devils from, Juventus.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Ronaldo, via his lawyers, is now demanding that he be paid the £17 million he is owed by the Bianconeri, said to arise from a secret agreement that was struck between him and the club during the COVID-19 pandemic and was not divulged publicly at the time as it also did not appear on the Serie A giants' balance sheet.
It has been a tough few days for the Italian club, whose entire board stepped down from their roles last week, including former president Andrea Agnelli, ex-vice-president Pavel Nedved, and departed managing director Maurizio Arrivabene.
Ronaldo's demand thus comes in the wake of some serious turmoil in Turin, with reports suggesting that the board's mass exodus was linked to its involvement in the Prisma investigation led by the Turin Public Prosecutor's Office. It is said that 15 people are alleged to have been implicated in the investigation into allegations of false accounting and market manipulation at Juve.
Read: Why €85m Man Utd star was left out of training camp
In 2019, Gazzetta dello Sport revealed that Ronaldo was earning €31 million (R564 million) per annum at Juventus, which was €23 million (R418 million) more than the Italian top flight's second-highest earner at the time, Matthijs de Ligt.
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