A Turin labor judge, Gian Luca Robaldo, issued a ruling regarding the protracted wage dispute for Portugal national team forward Cristiano Ronaldo, which has been ongoing since 2021.
The judge dismissed the appeal by “Juventus,” which will now forfeit the right to receive 9.8 million euros (about 11 million euros including interest) stipulated by an April 2024 arbitration award and already paid to the forward (who was represented by his lawyer John Shehata and team), writes La Gazzetta dello Sport.
The club will also cover legal costs, but this will not impact the financial budget of “Juventus,” as the contested amount was paid and reserved in the budget for the 2023-24 season.
The newspaper clarifies that the incident occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic when “Juventus” reached an accord with players concerning the supposed fictitious non-payment of a portion of monthly salaries.
In 2021, the management of “Juventus” settled with Ronaldo via a document known as the “Ronaldo card,” which was mentioned in the Turin investigation into the club’s top leadership, leading to the resignation of President Andrea Agnelli and the former board of directors.
The payment was anticipated to be 19.5 million euros, but this sum was never reflected in financial statements, and wiretaps related to the probe indicated that a written agreement “theoretically should not have existed,” as stated by Juventus’s head of legal department, Cesare Gabasio, in a conversation with sporting director Federico Cherubini.
The disbursement never materialized because Ronaldo was sold to “Manchester United” that same summer. In 2021, “Juventus” failed to honor its commitment after the footballer’s transfer to Manchester, and Ronaldo filed a suit against the football club.
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