On Tuesday evening, Manchester United announced on their official Twitter account that the club has mutually agreed with Cristiano Ronaldo to terminate the forward’s contract. A few hours later the club also announced that the club’s Board of Directors were exploring other strategic plans to enhance the club’s growth and other strategic alternatives.
The announcement comes just 5 days after Cristiano Ronaldo’s exposing and very controversial interview with Piers Morgan on “Piers Morgan Uncensored”, where the Portuguese called out the owners of the club for “not caring about the club”. The club announced that they were thankful for the forward’s “immense contribution across 2 spells” at Manchester United where he scored a total of 145 goals in 346 appearances across 2 stays at the Manchester club.
In the interview he did with Piers Morgan, Ronaldo openly criticized the owners’ (the Glazers) management of the club, accusing them of not caring about the sports side of the club and instead Manchester United were more of a marketing club. In the article, United announced that “the Board will consider all strategic alternatives, including new investment into the club, a sale, or other transactions involving the company”, and this is a ploy aimed at strengthening the club. The article further, “Executive Co-Chairmen and Directors, Avram Glazer and Joel Glazer said: ‘The strength of Manchester United rests on the passion and loyalty of our global community of 1.1 billion fans and followers. As we seek to continue building on the Club’s history of success, the Board has authorized a thorough evaluation of strategic alternatives. We will evaluate all options to ensure that we best serve our fans and that Manchester United maximizes the significant growth opportunities available to the Club today and in the future. Throughout this process we will remain fully focused on serving the best interests of our fans, shareholders, and various stakeholders’.”
It remains to be seen what the future holds for Cristiano as he has now become a free agent, with clubs yet to declare interest in the forward. Fans have been speculating that he might join a number of clubs and some have been rejoicing over the announcement of a strategic re-evaluation for the club.
