Manchester United’s stock rose nearly 7% after Cristiano Ronaldo’s website crashed, and the announcement tweet became the most liked tweet in one hour. And CR7 has yet to play a game.
Manchester United defeated their cross-city rivals, Pep Guardiola and company, off the field on Friday to bring Cristiano Ronaldo back to Old Trafford.
“Welcome back, Cristiano,” United said in a tweet. The club’s official website had crashed within minutes.
In just 60 minutes, the tweet received over 1.3 million likes. Various sports websites confirm that the tweet received over 100K impressions in one minute, with close to 55K likes and 45K retweets.
Ronaldo is 36 years old, poles apart from the skinny, insanely talented 17-year-old winger who arrived at United from Sporting Lisbon in 2003 with a bag of tricks but little end product. In the six years that followed, he scored 118 goals in 292 appearances and quickly established himself as one of the world’s most dangerous strikers, winning the first of his five FIFA world player of the year awards.
The current manager of Manchester United, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, is well aware of this. He used to be a teammate of Ronaldo’s.
“He is without a doubt the greatest player of all time,” Solskjaer said on Friday after Ronaldo’s return was confirmed.
According to Reuters, Ronaldo’s announcement caused enough of a stir to boost Manchester United’s stock by nearly 7% to $18.47.
There has yet to be an official fee announced.
However, according to the BBC, Ronaldo’s transfer cost United 15 million euros upfront and eight million euros in add-ons. Sky Italia announced that he would sign a two-year deal worth 480,000 pounds ($660,048.00) per week.
During his three years with Juventus, Ronaldo won two Serie A titles and a Copa Italia.
“I know (United’s Portugal midfielder) Bruno (Fernandes) has been talking to him as well, and he is aware of our feelings toward him. And he knows we’re here if he ever decides to leave Juventus, “Ole stated at a press conference on Friday.
Ronaldo’s departure is the most recent development in this transfer window, coming just two weeks after Lionel Messi, Ronaldo’s long-time rival, joined Paris Saint-Germain after his contract at Barcelona expired. Real Madrid has made a bid for PSG forward Kylian Mbappe worth around 160 million euros ($188 million).