It's official: Cristiano Ronaldo sold to Juventus by Real Madrid

It actually happened. Real Madrid have sold Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus, Real Madrid announced in an official statement posted to their website on Tuesday.

In the statement, the club makes clear that the decision was made with the full cooperation of Ronaldo, and that it was done according to his will and expressed wishes.

It brings about the end to one of the greatest club runs for a player ever. Over the last nine seasons, since he joined from Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo has scored 311 goals in 292 appearances for the club.

In Madrid, Ronaldo also joined a side that filled up the trophy cabinet. While they only won two La Liga titles and two Copa del Rey titles (thanks in part to overlapping with a generational Barcelona side), Ronaldo and Real Madrid were four-time Champions League trophy winners (including the most recent three in a row), two-time UEFA Super Cup champions, and three-time FIFA Club World Cup champions.

Ronaldo’s Real Madrid and Lionel Messi’s Barcelona gave us the gift of watching the two best players alive matching up time and time again for two of the best times on Earth, and doing so for years and years. It feels bizarre that this is coming to an end. A Messi-Ronaldo El Clasico was a fixture I’m devastated I won’t be able to see again. Or at least, not right now.

At 33, Ronaldo is in the closing half of his prime, but he’s still someone who can dominate at the highest level and provide a goalscoring ability for a Juventus club who hasn’t a scorer break the 25-goal season mark since at least 1998.

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