Cristiano Ronaldo could be offered a contract extension by Real Madrid, according to Sky sports expert Guillem Balague. The superstar had reportedly not been in Real Madrid’s plans for the future with the club looking to offload the Portugal international before his contract runs out in the summer of 2018.
Ronaldo is Madrid’s all-time top scorer with 364 goals in just 347 games and the Champions League’s all-time top scorer with 94 goals in 132 games.
The three-time Ballon d’Or winner has been linked with a sensational move to Paris Saint-Germain throughout the season and Balague has gone on to say that his agent “Jorge Mendes has an agreement in place for Ronaldo to join the Ligue 1 champions next season.”
But now, Los Blancos seem to have a change in thinking as they are looking to retain the Portuguese because they believe there is simply no one out there to replace him.
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Speaking to Revista Bitesize’s 2015/16 season review, Balague said, “There is a situation in the transfer market.
"Man City have to renew their squad, Man Utd have to renew their squad, Chelsea have to renew their squad, Barcelona have to make changes, Real Madrid have to bring in new blood.
"And there's not enough players. There's money, but not enough players. All of a sudden, they may probably think twice about getting rid of Cristiano.”
Robert Lewandowski could be Ronaldo's replacement
Balague believes Real Madrid consider only Robert Lewandowski as the only one who can come close to replacing Cristiano Ronaldo. The Poland international has had another brilliant individual campaign having led Bayern Munich to the Bundesliga title, leading the charts with 30 goals.
"There is [Robert] Lewandowski, who they could replace him with, but who else is there out there?
"Nobody out there has risen to that level that you think they will be as good as Cristiano Ronaldo soon. Real have gone from putting a price for Ronaldo to now thinking that there is no clear replacement in the market,” the Spaniard said.
It sounds ludicrous to be even thinking about selling a player of Ronaldo’s calibre, one of the greatest of all time, rivalling Messi as the best of this generation. The Madrid talisman has scored 50 or more goals for the sixth season in a row and leads the Champions League goal scoring charts at 16, with the final still to be played giving him a chance to break his own record of most goals scored in a single European campaign set in 2013/14 (17).
Madrid fans will be hoping their club don’t do something as silly as selling a superstar like Cristiano Ronaldo to any of Europe’s powerhouses. They would be wishing he retires at the Santiago Bernabeu.
