Football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo may have to get used to calling his beloved sport “soccer” instead of “football,” because he could very well end up playing in the United States.
Following a disappointing start to the season for his team Manchester United where he was relegated to a substitute, Ronaldo blasted his team in a recent interview with Piers Morgan. It resulted in him being immediately released by the team. Apparently, it was a mutual departure, and it now leaves Ronaldo as a free agent.
At the moment, his focus is playing for his national team, Portugal, at the World Cup in Qatar. Ronaldo said that if Portugal wins the cup, he will immediately retire.
However, since Portugal winning it all is unlikely, then it leaves Ronaldo without a team. He has recently expressed that he actually does want to play until 2025 when he turns 40, sans that Portugal World Cup win. Yet, few teams will make him an offer to his liking, though there are some possibilities.
He did admit that a Saudi Arabian club, which he did not name specifically, offered him a whopping $350 million dollars but that he turned it down, likely because he doesn’t want to leave European football, which would mean he can no longer compete at the UEFA Champions League, the most celebrated annual tournament of the sport and whose all-time leading goal scorer happens to be Ronaldo himself.
However, he will almost certainly not be able to both play in Europe and make the amount of money he believes he’s worth. So, it leads him to either reconsider the Saudi Arabian deal, or take the offer that will assuredly come his way from — of all places —Miami.
The ultimate soccer league in the United States is, of course, the MLS (Major League Soccer), and they just inked a deal with Apple TV. The $2.5 billion deal gives Apple TV broadcast rights for 10 years and MLS teams will receive a portion of the earnings. In other words, money to pay players keeps pouring in for the 27-year old American league.
The MLS has long been able to, amongst other things, attract many star players of Europe who are towards the end of their career, giving them high-paying salaries that European clubs will likely no longer offer. One of those stars was David Beckham, who played for the LA Galaxy, winning the MLS Cup with them in 2011. Nowadays, Beckham is part owner of Inter Miami CF and they are very much interested in getting a big name star similar to the English owner.
Earlier this month, David Beckham was seriously interested in Lionel Messi, whose contract with Paris Saint-Germain is up at the end of the season. His future could be determined as early as January and Inter Miami was expected to make a major offer.
However, with Ronaldo suddenly a free agent right now, Beckham and Inter Miami are reportedly planning to make the star an offer to join their team. Whether or not it deters their pursuit of Messi, Ronaldo may suddenly take top priority in the the Magic City.
The move(s) would be impossible if not for the MLS Designated Player Rule, which allows each team to sign up to three players outside of the normal salary cap, called a Salary Budget in the MLS, and be charged a maximum of $612,500 within that budget regardless of that player’s actual salary. This allows MLS teams to sign big name international players, which in turn helps increase interest in the league.
Thanks to the recent retirement of Ganzalo Higuaín, Inter Miami now have two Designated Player slots available. That means that both Ronaldo and Messi are a possibility, though grabbing both seems more like a dream than a reality.
Nonetheless, if both Ronaldo and Messi are playing in Miami in the fall of 2023, then it could make them one the most watched teams in the world, and maybe the most talked about U.S. club team since the Cosmos of the NASL had Pelé, Giorgio Chinaglia, and Franz Beckenbauer on the same team in 1977, and won the league championship for that historic New York club.
Regardless of what happens with Messi, a move by Cristiano Ronaldo to play in the USA has suddenly become a real possibility.