Porto president makes Cristiano Ronaldo claim

Porto president Pinto da Costa has claimed that no Portuguese clubs have enough money to sign Cristiano Ronaldo.

Ronaldo is currently without a club after he and Manchester United mutually agreed to terminate his contract early.

It’s unclear where he’ll go next with Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr his most likely next destination, but nothing set in stone as of yet.

The club are confident that he’ll join, but sources have confirmed to 90min that he is yet to respond to their lucrative offer.

It’s widely believed that he’d rather stay in Europe, with the 37-year-old returning to his home country for the final years of his career being raised as a possibility, most likely re-joining Sporting CP.

However, Da Costa isn’t so confident, claiming that no Portuguese clubs would be able to afford the forward’s salary demands.

“It’s up to him and the clubs interested,” he told Record.

“But in Portugal, nobody has the capacity to give him what he earns and still wants to earn. And he has value for that.”

There have been suggestions that Ronaldo would be willing to take a pay cut to stay in Europe, with talk of clubs being offered the chance to get him on a salary of just £80,000 a week, a relatively small amount given he was on half a million a week at Man Utd.

If wages are high up on his list of priorities though, it’s almost certain that he’ll join Al-Nassr rather than Sporting CP, or any other club in Portugal.