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Juventus managing director Fabio Paratici has said the Italian giants have decided not to allow Cristiano Ronaldo to leave the club this summer.
The Portuguese's Juventus contract expires at the end of the 2021-22 season. However, there has been speculation about his future, especially after Juventus were knocked out of the UEFA Champions League on away goals against Porto.
"We’ve decided to keep Cristiano Ronaldo. He’s the best player in the world and we are holding on tight," Paratici said at full-time after the loss to Benevento.
"We have a project that we started from last season, one game will not change our views or our strategy. This line continues and we are very happy with what we’ve done, so we’ll continue working to improve," he continued.
Recently, Real Madrid head coach Zinedine Zidane had also stoked the fire of Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Juventus, by suggesting that it could be possible the Portuguese would return to the Santiago Bernabeu. Paris Saint-Germain were also mooted as a potential next destination for Cristiano Ronaldo.
Juventus to keep Cristiano Ronaldo, Andrea Pirlo for next season
With respect to Pirlo's job security, Paratici stated that this season wouldn't change the project that Juventus have embarked on with him, and that the manager would stay too, just like Cristiano Ronaldo.
"We were not unsatisfied with the previous coaches, but there were different reasons why we decided to change," said the Juventus managing director.
"Just as a defeat won’t change the project of a club, a victory won’t either. Once an approach has been decided on, we see it through," said Paratici.
"I don’t believe the word ‘transitional’ exists at Juventus. We play every game aiming to win, some go better than others, but transition isn’t an issue here. Every year is important, even when it doesn’t necessarily have the same results as in the past," he continued.
"If we are just talking about results, there are clubs who had seven, eight or 10 years of transition in which they didn’t win anything and didn’t really lay down any foundations either," the managing director explained.
Paratici also said that while questions are now being asked because of Juventus's lack of success, he remains bullish about the squad's potential for growth, citing the foundation that has been laid at Juve in the last few years.
"People might not have realised because we kept winning, but we have already made numerous changes over the years, reduced the age of the squad several times to build for future success," he said.
"I can tell you seven or eight times we were told an era has ended, for example the defeat at Galatasaray, Conte’s departure, the Berlin Champions League Final, when we were 10 points off the lead at the start of last season, when we replaced Allegri with Sarri, etc, etc and yet we continued to win," Paratici stated.
Juventus are currently ten points behind league leaders Inter Milan after Sunday's loss to Benevento.
