Cristiano Ronaldo ‘poised to finish his career at Manchester United’

Semedo and Ronaldo played together at Sporting Lisbon and remain close friends who holiday together, as evidenced by a tweet that Telegraph dug up from earlier this year.

Semedo was speaking to talkSPORT after Sheffield Wednesday’s 3-0 win against Arsenal in the League Cup.

“He is very happy at Real Madrid and he loves English football, he loves English people and deep down I think he will come back to England,” said Semedo.

“He doesn’t like he wants to finish his career without coming back to England.

“He said he would wish Real Madrid is in England, but that is not possible so I believe he will end his career in English football.”

Ronaldo left United for the Spanish capital in 2009 for £80 million, and, while Semedo does not name check the Manchester cub, the Telegraph and talkSPORT both assume that If Ronaldo did elect to return to England then his destination of choice would be Old Trafford.

Ronaldo is now 30. He has surpassed Raul’s record to become Real Madrid’s all time record scorer. His list of titles at Madrid include La Liga, the Copa del Rey, the Champions League, the Supercopa de Espana, the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. Put simply he has achieved all that he can at Madrid.

Furthermore, there has been talk of a succession plan at Madrid; a post-Ronaldo iteration of the Madrid club is not too far away. Would Ronaldo’s ego allow him to not be the main man at the Bernabeu? Unlikely. Would a managed exit to a club close to Ronaldo’s heart make sense for almost all parties? Quite possibly.

Therefore, timing is the key here. Until what age does Ronaldo expect to play to? At what point in time will he be phased out of the Madrid team? If there is a couple years variance in the answers to those questions, then it would not be completely unreasonable for United to step in and sign the Portuguese star. His preference for England should swing the balance in the favour of United over PSG - another apparent suitor - should he leave Madrid.

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