Everyone’s talking about it and reporting it, but it’s hard to actually comprehend the notion that Cristiano Ronaldo is not going to be a Real Madrid player in the not so distant future, and it’s even harder to comprehend he’s actually going to be playing once more for Manchester United.

Both the Sun and AS have reported that the Portuguese star has confided in former teammates about his desire to return to the club. In Spain they even went out and revealed that Ronaldo has already decided on not renewing his contract with Real Madrid, that ends in 2015. Not money issues. No, he’s never about money. Just love and football, and he feels that playing in the La Liga, with Real Madrid, is never going to allow him to win the individual awards he wants so badly.

Maybe the theory of distancing himself from Lionel Messi is the right one, but maybe it’s another negotiation ploy. Real Madrid are set to offer him €15 million a season, but maybe he simply wants more. Maybe Jorge Mendes, the super-agent that handles his affairs, is finding yet another way, which is actually the one from earlier this season, to push Real Madrid into more expensive territory.

And then there’s Manchester United and the rumors around what they’ll be willing to pay to get Ronaldo back, and what Real will be willing to accept. The first figure spoke about the astronomical, impossible, £122 million. It’s hard to think anyone would be willing to pay that kind of money, especially not Alex Ferguson, who is rather transfer savvy when it comes to prices. So people dug into their calculators and their roster checkers and came up with this – £65 million, plus players.

What players? Real Madrid need a better substitute goalkeeper, and David de Gea is just the man to be placed as the heir for Iker Casillas in both club and country. It’s already known that De Gea isn’t too happy, or wasn’t a couple of months ago, about life in Manchester. It also has to do with his girlfriend. This isn’t some Mourinho trick to find another reason and bench Real’s captain. This isn’t coming from him, as he might not be staying that long either.

The other player in the trade rumors is Nani. The Portuguese winger seems like someone who doesn’t have much of a future left at Old Trafford, but Alex Ferguson has already come out and said that Manchester United need Nani for the rest of the season. What about afterwards? Silence. Words don’t mean much in football anyway.

So the media has already prepared a deal and everything for Real Madrid, Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester United to conquer with. The problem is nobody knows if Ronaldo’s ego is actually that big that he’ll leave Real Madrid in order to improve his Ballon d’Or chances or is this just another trick from his agent to improve his contract offer.

Image: Source