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A football academy on the island has been given a massive boost following the news that Cristiano Ronaldo is leaving Real Madrid to join Italian club Juventus.
Whilst the summer holidays are normally a slow time for new players signing up for coaching, a huge amount of interest has been sparked by the transfer in advance of the coming term in September.
Juventus paid 112 million euros ($131.5 million) for Ronaldo, who signed a four-year deal with the Serie A champions, and its successful academy was quick off the mark to entice youngsters with a replica CR7 shirt prize in a draw.
Head coach John Mackenzie said: “The response has been staggering. It’s great news. We’re very excited at the Juventus Academy to welcome Ronaldo into the Juventus family and hope his many fans make the move with him to Juventus. We hope his amazing winning streak in the Champions League comes with him too!”
Italian fans in the community have also something at last to smile about after their country failed to qualify for the FIFA World Cup Finals in Russia. Instead, for the past month, they’ve had to watch their European neighbours nominate the tournament.
Back in April, Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning coach Marcello Lippi told keen younger footballers wearing his former club’s shirts how his heart, and that of his nation, had been broken by the county’s failure to reach the 2018 finals.
Lippi, was the main speaker at the First Arab Conference on Sport staged in Amwaj Islands, but travelled across the island to call in on the Juventus Academy’s HQ in Saar.
The children were not shy in showering their esteemed guest with questions and one shot they fired at him, was to ask his reaction about Italy’s World Cup woe. He replied through translator Stefano Pettinato, saying: “We are suffering … this is only the second time in the competition’s history that we have not made it to the finals.”
Keeping a diplomatic silence, Italian ambassador to Bahrain, Domenico Bellato, who watched the discussion from the sidelines, declined to elaborate on how the rest of the Italian community in the kingdom was feeling. “It hurts,” he admitted.
But football’s cruelty appears to have been cured by the superstar’s move. Ronaldo joined Real Madrid in 2009 from Manchester United and was the Spanish club’s all-time leading scorer with 451 goals in 438 matches. He helped the club win four Champions League titles, beating Juventus in the final in 2017. He has scored a record 120 Champions League goals, 105 of them since moving to Madrid – 12 more than Juventus managed in that same period.
Ronaldo is currently on vacation in Greece following Portugal’s elimination from the World Cup. Juventus president Andrea Agnelli flew out to meet the 33-year-old forward.
The transfer has shocked many football pundits, but may also be one of those moves that makes sense for everyone: hence Ronaldo’s revelation that he pushed for it; hence Real Madrid’s willingness to let him go for a ‘mere’ €100m – still considerably shorter than his €1bn buy-out clause.
The logic for Juventus is obvious, even allowing for Ronaldo’s advanced years. They want to sign the guarantee of goals that can at last bring them that Champions League, so have gone out and signed the tournament’s greatest goal scorer and one of its most decorated players.
There is also the symbolism of the purchase, as much as the figures. Juventus are emboldening their status as a super-club. They are the first Italian club to sign a reigning Ballon D’Or winner since the original Ronaldo joined Inter Milan in 1997. While there are obviously far too many complications here to say that Italian football is back, especially since this should secure the title in Turin for yet another season, it is a step forward.
Ronaldo himself is in good enough physical condition to keep scoring goals going forward. That should not be a concern.
Ronaldo’s legacy is that he has been the greatest player, the key figure, in the second greatest ever spell of European success, and the greatest spell of modern Champions League success: four trophies in five years and the gold-standard of three in a row.
Ronaldo was also moved by the Juventus fans for giving him a standing ovation after he scored a spectacular goal against the Italian club at the Allianz Stadium in the Champions League quarter-finals last season.
“I’m happy for Ronaldo because he’s going to a club where the fans appreciate his greatness and they will never boo him,” one Bahraini fan said.
