Barcelona working on deal to unite Cristiano Ronaldo & Lionel Messi
By Tom Gott
With Barcelona now confident Lionel Messi will stay at Camp Nou, president Joan Laporta is understood to be focusing on how to build a new super-team - and is working on a deal to bring Juventus forward Cristiano Ronaldo to the club.
Ronaldo has been heavily linked with a move away from Juventus this summer, with both club and player thought to be ready to bring their time together to an end. But his enormous wages mean only a handful of sides on the planet can actually afford him.
On the face of things, you wouldn't expect Barcelona to be among them. Their finances were in disarray even before the COVID-19 outbreak and are now as bad as they have ever been, but according to AS, Laporta isn't worried and is continuing to dream big.
Laporta has spoken with those close to him at the club about his dream to unite Ronaldo and Messi, the two greatest players of their generation, and Barcelona officials are now trying to work out what it would take to get a deal done.
Any move would be expected to revolve around player swaps. Barcelona could not afford Ronaldo's wages as it is, but offloading some of their own highest earners would make it more feasible.
The likes of Antoine Griezmann, Philippe Coutinho and Sergi Roberto have all been mentioned in dispatches, and offloading all three would free up a Ronaldo-sized hole in the wage budget.
That's as far as things have progressed at the minute. There has been no contact between the two clubs, agent Jorge Mendes has not been spoken to whatsoever and Barcelona don't even know whether Ronaldo would agree to join them. It's unlikely to happen, to say the least, given his previous Real Madrid connections.
Nevertheless, Juventus' financial situation also has to be considered, as their unwillingness to pay Ronaldo is a large part of their desire to sell him.
Griezmann comes with wages that aren't too far away from Ronaldo's, while even Coutinho and Roberto take home a pretty penny every week. As a result, the Italian giants might not be into the idea of sinking money into three players who Barcelona evidently don't want.