Portuguese soccer superstar Cristiano Rolando just inked a €112 million ($131 million) deal to join the Italian side Juventus. Fresh off an impressive World Cup run that ended in disappointment, Ronaldo will switch from Spain’s Real Madrid, where he spent the last nine years, to Turin, where Juventus is based.
But before Italy’s Serie A soccer season starts, its current champions Juventus will embark on a summer tour of the US, including a match against the best US soccer has to offer at the 2018 MLS All-Star Game. It’s likely that Ronaldo will join up with the team during the tour, as he and others who toiled at the World Cup head back to their day jobs after the summer break.
Juventus will play some of the world’s best teams on its US trip, concluding with a match in Washington DC against Ronaldo’s former team. Ronaldo has a flair for the dramatic, so perhaps it would be the perfect setting to make his debut. Juventus wasn’t immediately available to discuss Ronaldo’s plans.
About as soon as the ink dried on his contract, Juventus put Ronaldo’s jersey on sale at its online store, although it seemed its servers initially struggled under the weight of fans rushing to pick one up.
Ronaldo’s transfer, which will now see him earning over $500,000 per week at the age of 33, is the fourth-most expensive ever, according to a recent list complied by Goal. (His move from Manchester United to Madrid in 2009 was the seventh-most.)