Juventus confirm when the ‘crazy idea’ to sign Ronaldo came up

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Juventus sporting director Fabio Paratici confirms the “crazy idea” to sign Cristiano Ronaldo came up after his standing ovation while playing for Real Madrid.

The Ballon d’Or scored a stunning overhead kick in Turin in last season’s Champions League, with the Juventus Stadium rising to applause even if it was against their own side.

Today CR7 was officially presented as a Bianconeri player, joining in a €100m transfer that shatters the Serie A record.

“The crazy idea came up after the first match here,” Paratici explained to Sky after today’s Press conference.

“When Cristiano received the ovation, after the overhead goal, we talked to his agent [Jorge Mendes] during the week.

“He said: ‘look, he was struck by all the attention he received. He was impressed, and he’d like to come and play for Juve one day’.

“I said: ‘fine, I understand, there are a lot of dreams but not many of them come true’.

“Then when we met again for [Joao] Cancelo he explained the situation to me and we accepted the idea.

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“I spoke to the President [Andrea Agnelli] first of all because we had to make the numbers work before anything else, that was the most difficult part.

“He took a few hours and then said to me: ‘go ahead, try to see if there really is a chance’.

“It was a concrete opportunity, a unique chance to bring in a player who is universally recognised as the best in the world, the most determined, even the one who has won the most trophies.

“When there are negotiations between two big clubs – not even clubs, institutions – like Real Madrid and Juventus, then you have the third part which is the will of the player, as well as great professionalism from agents, it becomes easier to do business and make transfers happen.”

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