Paris St Germain and Manchester United would appear to be the front runners for his signature but do not rule out Chelsea should Abramovic decide Hazard can be part of the deal.
Real have long been admirers of the Belgian winger and have repeatedly tried to sign him in the past, and now he could be used as a pawn to snatch Ronaldo from under United’s nose. Ronaldo signed a new five-year contract at Real nine months ago with a one billion euros buy-out clause so there are sure to be difficulties unless Real president Florentino Pérez can be persuaded to reign in his demands.
Manchester United have already splashed out €34m for Benfica’s Swedish defender Victor Lindelöf.
Ronaldo left United in 2009 for a then world-record fee of €100m but he has always been careful to retain a link with the club. Whether he can work with José Mourinho remains to be seen and any possible move would need to be initiated by the world’s highest earning athlete.
Although Ronaldo failed to score in Portugal’s opening Confederation Cup game against Mexico, he rattled the woodwork early on before setting up his side’s opener with a delightful ball for Ricardo Quaresma to stroke home.
A defensive error allowed Javier Hernandez to equalise for Mexico before Southampton’s Cedric Soares’ deflected effort appeared to secure all three points for the European champions.
But Hector Moreno had other ideas as he levelled the scores to make it 2-2 with virtually the last touch of the match.
In another twist involving ‘hidden earnings’ it has emerged that Spanish prosecutors have filed a claim against José Mourinho on two counts of tax fraud in 2011 and 2012 amounting to some €3.3m, when he managed Real Madrid.
It is alleged that Mourinho used shell companies in the Virgin Islands and Ireland to “hide profits made from image rights”.
It will now be up to a judge to decide whether to take the matter to court. Cristiano Ronaldo will testify in a case, in which he is accused of hiding income from the tax authorities, on 31 July according to the Spanish online newspaper El Confidencial.
Last year, Lionel Messi and his father, Jorge Horacio Messi, were found guilty on three counts of defrauding tax authorities of €4.1m from income made from image rights.
The two were given 21-month jail sentences but neither is expected to serve prison time since it was a first offence and the sentence was under two years.