Cristiano Ronaldo’s transfer to Juventus last summer came as a shock to many. Everyone in the footballing world was surprised to see Ronaldo moving from a club that has won the Champions League thrice in a row. Juventus agreed on a €100m (£88.3m) fee for Portugal forward with Real Madrid and the 34-year-old Ronaldo signed a four-year contract with an annual salary of around €30m. Ever since his departure, there have been different theories on why he chose to leave the Santiago Bernabeu.

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Soon, Ronaldo announced that he wasn’t feeling loved at Madrid and president Florentino Perez was the major reason why he wanted to switch clubs. It has been said that Ronaldo wanted a pay raise at the club and Perez wasn’t willing to grant him that. Now former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has given his theory on what triggered Ronaldo’s departure to Italy. Calderon claims that Ronaldo was unhappy with the club’s links to Neymar and Perez’s reluctance to offer him fresh terms and that convinced the Portuguese to leave Spain.

Calderon told Radio Villa Trinidad “Cristiano asked for a raise after winning the Champions League and Florentino denied it. Cristiano also got angry because he heard that Madrid would be willing to pay a lot of money for Neymar, Florentino told him that if he brought in a cheque for 100 million euros he would let him go and that's how it was.”.

Marcelo revealed that Ronaldo had told him before the Champions League final that he was leaving. So it is likely that a deal was several months in the making with the five-time Ballon d’Or winner already making his decision to leave Santiago Bernabeu. Calderon further went on to say that Perez should also hold responsibility for Zinedine Zidane’s walkout from the club. Zidane quit Madrid soon after winning his third successive Champions League crown as a manager. Calderon claimed that Zidane would have stayed at the club if his demands had been met by the Blancos board.

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“He took the team after another coach was fired after Zidane left because he clearly knew what was going to happen. It is clear that Zidane asked Florentino Perez for something that was not granted.

“One of the demands was that Cristiano never leaves.”