Super star Cristiano Ronaldo returns to Spain for the first time since he quit Real Madrid a few months ago as Valencia play host to Juventus in Champions League
Juventus striker Cristiano Ronaldo during a training session in Turin yesterday. Pic/AFP
No player owns as many Champions League titles as Cristiano Ronaldo but a sixth with Juventus would surely be his best. Ronaldo led in all the five previous triumphs, from his towering header for Man Utd against Chelsea in 2008 to the tie-clinching, 97th-minute penalty against Juventus last season in the quarters.
Goals galore
In between, there were 17 goals he scored in every game but one, en route to the trophy in 2014, the title-winning penalty against Atletico in 2016 and the hat-trick against the same opposition, this time in the last four, a year later. He also scored twice against Juventus in the final. Seeing this Juve seemingly decided last summer that the only way to win the Champions League before Ronaldo retires is to have Ronaldo on your team.
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They begin that assault today, when Ronaldo, 33, will kick a ball competitively in Spain for the first time since his dizzying 100 million-euro move from Madrid. Valencia are the obstacle at the Mestalla, where he scored twice, both penalties, for his former team last term.
Many were shocked when Ronaldo drew a line under his time in the Spanish capital. Lionel Messi told Catalunya Radio earlier this month: "I was surprised, I didn't imagine him leaving Madrid or that he would go to Juve." There is merit and romance in Messi sticking with his boyhood Barcelona but even he must find it hard not to admire Ronaldo's gumption. More trophies and records would inevitably have followed at Madrid but instead he started again, risking his reputation for somewhere new.
Risk for Juventus
There is risk too for Juventus, who have shelled out the first three-figure sum ever paid for a player in his thirties. Ronaldo's first Juve goal against Sassuolo on Sunday was a tap-in from a yard out, his second a driven left-footed shot into the corner. After three games without finding the net, even Ronaldo had been feeling the pressure.
"I was a little tense with all the talk after my move from Real Madrid and not scoring," he said afterwards. The real pressure, however, will come in Europe where Juventus' investment will be judged. The club's pursuit of a first Champions League success since 1996 has become an obsession and Ronaldo is supposed to be the last piece in that puzzle.
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