Cristiano Ronaldo’s agent says the superstar rejected an offer from a Chinese Super League club that would have paid him over €100 million ($105,581,500) per year.
Jorge Mendes confirmed to Sky Sports Italia in an interview released on Thursday night that the unnamed club were willing to pay Real Madrid a transfer fee of €300 million ($316,744,500).
“From China, they’ve offered €300m to Real Madrid and more than €100m per year to the player,” Mendes said.
“But money is not everything; the Spanish club is his life.”
The €300m transfer fee would have nearly tripled the record €105m price that Manchester United paid Juventus for Paul Pogba in the summer.
Ronaldo’s proposed salary of €100m — or €1,923,077 per week — also would have blown away the €17,453,800 (€335,650 per week) he is reported to make at his current deal at Madrid.
Last year, Mendes told the BBC that “someone will pay” £300m (then €396m) for Ronaldo should Real Madrid put him up for sale, but Mendes also claimed the Portuguese star had a £1 billion (€1.32bn) release clause.
Ronaldo, who won his fourth Ballon d’Or earlier this month, signed a new contract at Madrid in November, extending his commitment to the club until 2021.
Mendes was speaking in a taped segment from Dubai, where Ronaldo last week accepted the honour of best player at the Globe Soccer Awards.
The video was released a day after Carlos Tevez, Ronaldo’s former teammate at Manchester United, signed a major deal with Chinese club Shanghai Shenhua.
It was initially thought that Tevez could make as much as £615,000 a week, but subsequent reports said the deal was closer to £226,000 weekly — a salary of £11,752,000.
Last week, Shanghai SIPG signed Brazil midfielder Oscar from Chelsea for around £52m, but Mendes was confident Ronaldo would not be the next in line.
“The Chinese market is a new market,” Mendes said. “They can buy a lot of players, but then again it is impossible to go for Ronaldo.
“Cristiano is the best player in the world and best ever. It is normal to have some offers.
“He won the European Championship with Portugal. It’s like winning the Italian league with Genoa — they were not the favourite.”
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