Cristiano Ronaldo could face questioning as part of the ongoing investigation by Italian authorities into Juventus’ financial and transfer dealings.
The club’s offices in Turin and Milan were raided by police last Friday with player contracts, invoices, and financial statements taken as evidence.
The operation was carried out over claims that Juventus falsely recorded the values of transfers between 2019 and 2021 to enable them to comply with Financial Fair Play regulations.
Italian authorities took documents relating to transfers, invoices, and financial statements with six Juventus officials – including club president Andrea Agnelli and vice-president Pavel Nedved under investigation, as well as Juventus itself.
Fabio Paratici, who was Juve’s sporting director before taking up a similar role with Tottenham last summer, is also under investigation. A probe by Italy’s football watchdog COVISOC and finance regulator Consob has already been opened.
In a report by Sportsmail earlier this week, the £47million deal for Cristian Romero to Tottenham in August, the same day he left Juventus for Atalanta for just £13.5m, is one of 42 transfers being scrutinised by police amid claims of false accounting.
Now Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport has claimed the Turin Public Prosecutor could question Manchester United striker Ronaldo as part of the probe.
Its alleged prosecutors are looking into a ‘secret’ agreement Ronaldo struck with Juventus during his time there that could relate to the amount of salary he deferred at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic or severance pay he received before leaving for Old Trafford this summer.
Reports in Italy claim there are recordings of phone calls where Juventus directors talk about a ‘document that should not have theoretically existed’ in relation to Ronaldo, but investigators are yet to find the document in question.
The Juventus directors who have been questioned by prosecutors so far have also reportedly failed to explain the nature of the deal that was struck with Ronaldo, who scored 101 goals in 134 appearances for the Italian giants.
The prosecutors in the case are willing to speak to Ronaldo about the matter in the hope the forward can clear up the ‘secret’ agreement and are considering summoning him back to Italy through his agent – GestiFute’s Jorge Mendes.
