Can Ronaldo Make Third Season at Juventus a Lucky One in Champions League Pursuit?
Short of lifting the World Cup with Portugal, there is precious little else that Cristiano Ronaldo hasn’t won in the most stellar of stellar careers in football. As he turns 36 this winter and is now in his third season at Italian giants Juventus, he’s looking to climb to the top of the European club football mountain again.
Ronaldo’s summer transfer from Real Madrid to Turin in 2018 wasn’t just about selling shirts and other merchandise. The Old Lady brought him to Italy not just to maintain their domestic dominance in Serie A, but with the aim of repeating the Champions League success he enjoyed at the Bernabeu.
Juve have lost five European Cup finals since the last of their two victorious campaigns in the elite continental competition back in 1996. This term marks the 25th anniversary of edging Ajax in a penalty shootout on home soil when Roma and Lazio’s ground, the Stadio Olimpico, hosted the Champions League final.
In the quarter of a century since, the Old Lady has been home to a galaxy of stars that would rival any of the other teams – Sporting Lisbon, Manchester United and Los Blancos – Ronaldo has played in. So dominant on the home front, yet Juventus just haven’t been able to translate that into European success.
A Ronaldo double helped down the Turin team in the 2017 Champions League final when Real ran out 4-1 winners. The thought process may have been if we can’t beat him, can we get him to join us? That’s what Ronaldo duly did little more than a year later.
He also improved his goalscoring stats from his first season in Italy to last term, mirroring trends at United and Madrid. Ronaldo knows Serie A now; so, having figured out what it takes to get goals in the league, his focus could now be on Europe.
This campaign is in many ways something of a last chance saloon for some of Juve’s other veterans. Goalkeeping great Gianluigi Buffon turns 43 shortly before Ronaldo’s next birthday and isn’t always first-choice between the posts thanks to ex-Arsenal stopper Wojciech Szczesny.
Giorgio Chiellini, meanwhile, has battled back from a career-threatening injury to return in defence. He is 36 now, but the presence of these veterans who have time and again scooped the Scudetto are why Juventus remain 7/4 favourites for the league in the latest Serie A betting, although Inter Milan aren’t far behind at 11/4. The Old Lady are also 16/1 shots to go all the way in Europe and finally lift the Champions League again. They are rated as likely as Ronaldo’s former club Real.
Whether a Barcelona team in such disarray behind the scenes should be shorter just because of Ronaldo’s great rival Lionel Messi, who wanted to leave Catalonia this past summer, is up for debate. Rookie manager Andrea Pirlo and the Old Lady came out second best to Ronald Koeman’s La Liga outfit when they met in Turin, though, so Juventus will have to do better if they reach the business end of the Champions League.
