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What’s the story?
As per reports in the Italian daily Calciomercato, Real Madrid are readying themselves for the worrying prospect of losing Cristiano Ronaldo by lining up bids for not one but three superstars – Juventus’ Paulo Dybala, Bayern Munich’s Robert Lewandowski, and Monaco’s teenage sensation Kylian Mbappe. The trio, though, won’t come cheap and the reports state that Madrid are willing to use all proceeds of any possible Ronaldo move (and then some) to fund the moves – an amount that is set to be as high as €207 million
In case you didn’t know
As the whole world knows by now, Cristiano Ronaldo is facing damaging tax-fraud accusations leveled at him by Spain’s public prosecutor that allege the Portuguese defrauded the Spanish exchequer of €14.7 million. These stem from differences in interpretation of the image rights legislation by the authorities and Ronaldo’s representatives. Here are the full details, in case you missed them: What exactly did Cristiano Ronaldo do wrong? How does it differ from Lionel Messi?
The heart of the matter
Lewandowski’s scoring record is the one that most closely resembles Ronaldo’s supernatural scoring record: the Pole got 43 goals in just the 47 games for the Bavarian giants while Paulo Dybala (19 goals from 48) and Kylian Mbappe (26 goals from 44) are two of the hottest properties in world football around at the moment. The mere fact that Madrid will consider bids for three players shows just how much value Ronaldo adds to the team – he is in essence three world-class footballers in one!
Video
Some Robert Lewandowski magic, if -for some reason -you are not convinced by the Pole:
Convinced now?
Author’s take
Cristiano Ronaldo is irreplaceable. That is fact... but if he does move then it stands to reason that Real Madrid will have to splash big to fill the void that he’ll leave – and importantly to prove that the club was not entirely dependent on him. Lewandowski is pure class and it is likely that if he moves Karim Benzema will have to take a step down and play the second fiddle to the big Pole if he does move to the Bernabeu.
Kylian Mbappe and Paulo Dybala meanwhile will have to fight between themselves and Gareth Bale for the other two forward positions – with both adding their own unique attributes to the attack. Zinedine Zidane may love having such promising young talent at his disposal but his first priority this summer would be to work along with Florentino Perez to convince Ronaldo he need not leave.
