How Ronaldo's Old Trafford Reunion Unravelled From the Inside
Manchester United's second courtship of Cristiano Ronaldo was supposed to restore glory to Old Trafford. Instead, it ended little more than a year later with the forward's exit to Saudi Arabia, a reputation dented and a club searching for answers about how a dream signing turned into a dressing-room fault line.
A Homecoming Built on High Expectation
When Ronaldo returned from Juventus in August 2021, United had just finished runners-up to Manchester City under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and lost the Europa League final to Villarreal. The club's ambition was explicit: end a Premier League drought stretching back to Sir Alex Ferguson's retirement in 2013 and push deep into the Champions League. Ronaldo's arrival, edging out a reported interest from City, was framed internally as vindication - a statement signing to sit alongside Raphael Varane and Jadon Sancho in what United executives privately considered their best transfer window since 2007.
The numbers, in isolation, were respectable. Ronaldo scored 18 Premier League goals and 24 in all competitions, finding the net in each of his first five Champions League group matches. But United finished sixth, conceded 57 league goals, and churned through three permanent or interim managers inside a season. Solskjaer was gone within 13 matches of Ronaldo's return. His successor, Ralf Rangnick, lasted only a few months before privately telling the board that Ronaldo should be moved on if United wanted to progress.
Tension Inside the Dressing Room
Behind the scenes, friction built steadily. A delegation of senior players, including Ronaldo, Paul Pogba and Varane, approached Rangnick at the club's Carrington training ground in February 2022 - notably without captain Harry Maguire present. Ronaldo pushed for a two-striker system alongside Edinson Cavani and suggested Maguire should be dropped after a run of poor form, a view that reportedly left some team-mates uncomfortable enough to later apologise to the manager. Those close to United insist Maguire's standing within the squad was never as fractured as portrayed, pointing out that multiple coaches continued to trust him with the armband.
By the time Erik ten Hag arrived that summer, the direction of travel was already set. A heavy opening-day-adjacent defeat at Brentford convinced the Dutchman he would not block a Ronaldo departure, and the forward was soon benched for wins over Liverpool and Southampton - a visible demotion for a player who had made clear he wanted Champions League football, something United, competing in the Europa League, could not offer.
A Market That Never Materialised
Despite widespread speculation, no major Champions League club made a serious move for Ronaldo. The only concrete offer came from Saudi side Al Hilal, which did not align with his stated ambition to remain in Europe's top competition. He eventually joined Al Nassr in December 2022 after his United contract was terminated, closing a chapter that began with celebration and ended in mutual disillusionment.
The broader story also revealed how close Ronaldo came to wearing sky blue instead. Sources suggest Manchester City's interest cooled partly over concerns about accommodating him alongside Raheem Sterling, creating the opening United seized through contacts including Rio Ferdinand, Patrice Evra and Bruno Fernandes. Whether United pursued Ronaldo out of genuine strategic belief or fear of losing him to a rival remains, in the words of those close to the deal, a question that may never be fully settled.
