Serie A giants AS Roma have denied that they were engaging in a transfer pursuit of Cristiano Ronaldo during the summer.
Contrary to widespread belief, Cristiano Ronaldo claimed in an interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV that several clubs were interested in signing him in the summer but he opted to stay at Manchester United.
Ronaldo confirmed that he rejected a £350m offer from Saudi Arabia but there was other deals on the table — just not from Roma, a club that were linked with signing the 37-year-old goalscorer.
Both Roma’s manager, Jose Mourinho, and director of sport, Tiago Pinto, are Portuguese but the interest reported was not genuine.
Speaking to reporters at the Thinking Football Summit via Football Italia, Pinto said: “One of the things that irritates me about Italy is that they are constantly talking about the transfer market. The truth is that Cristiano Ronaldo was never a possibility.
“These rumours had no foundation, but in Italy they talk every day about three different players linked with your club. I understand it was natural to link us because Mourinho and I are both Portuguese, and so is Cristiano, but as I said, there was never any substance in it.”
It’s just another example of lazy clickbait journalism, full of mistruths, and similar in that to Ronaldo’s recent interview. There are things we’ll agree with from the interview, but the whole interview was set up to give an extremely one-sided view. At least Pinto gave a definitive response to the rumours.
For Ronaldo, a return to Italy appears to completely off the table.
