Reigning European champions Real Madrid are set to extend the contract of their talisman, Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese superstar’s current deal with the club expires in the summer of 2018. The 31-year-old currently earns £16.5 million per year and there may not be any significant increase in his new contract. Los Blancos are keen to tie down all their key players and they’ve already finalised new deals with Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Marco Asensio, Keylor Navas, Lucas Vazquez and Gareth Bale.
Gareth Bale’s eclipsed Ronaldo as Real Madrid’s highest paid player following his recent extension which will keep him at the Santiago Bernabeu till 2022. This makes it obvious that the Real Madrid plan to build their team around the Welshman.
Ronaldo’s new contract will demonstrate the faith that the Madrid hierarchy have in the 31-year-old. The Real Madrid number seven was on a poor run of form since the start of this season, but he silenced his critics by scoring a hat-trick against Deportivo Alaves in Real’s last La Liga game.
The Portuguese skipper joined The Los Blancos from Manchester United in 2009 for £80 million which was the world record transfer fee at that point in time. The 3-time Ballon d’Or winner has an incredible 371 goals and 118 assists to his name in 357 appearances for the club.
Ronaldo’s impressive performances for club and country last season makes him the favourite to win the Ballon d'Or this year as he helped Real Madrid win the UEFA champions league and led Portugal to their UEFA Euro 2016 triumph in France which was the nation's first ever major trophy.
Real Madrid are also trying to finalise new deals for Pepe, Dani Carvajal and Isco. Pepe’s current deal expires at the end of the season and has attracted interest from other clubs. Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane has provided Isco more game time this season and the 24-year-old looks set to commit his future to the club.
The 11-time European champions have been restricted from registering new players by FIFA until the January transfer window in 2018 along with Atletico Madrid. This would certainly have something to do with the diligence of the Real Madrid board to tie down their star players and block the interest from other sides of Europe especially from the Premier League clubs.
Real Madrid are currently top of the La Liga table, having picked up 24 points from 10 games, 2 points ahead of rivals Barcelona.
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