The noise linking Cristiano Ronaldo and Paris Saint-Germain just won't quiet down.
He's happy at Real Madrid. He wants to stay at Real Madrid. People don't believe him. His future is 'uncertain'. There was that whole thing where he winked at PSG president Nasser Al Khelaifi.
Now there’s another log to toss on the Ronaldo-PSG fire.
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According to a report in France Football, Ronaldo's first order of business following his hat-rick to power Real Madrid in a fightback over Wolfsburg and into the Champions League semi-finals was not to take a day to relax, or a family outing, or to even get right back into training – he went to Paris.
"A simple tourist visit?" asks France Football. "Not really."
According to the French outlet, Ronaldo was in the French capital to meet with Al Khelaifi.
“The assumption he is coming to PSG takes more shape,” reads the sub-headline.
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The magazine then reports of Ronaldo's "whirlwind trip" to Paris. The Portuguese, France Football says, took a private jet with his friend and adviser Anass Ouzifi to Le Bourget airport, where they got into a car – provided by Al Khelaifi – and went to the restaurant Fouqet's before finishing the evening at Hotel Costes to meet with the Qatari.
More notably, the report states, “according to our information, this is at least the fifth time that the triple Ballon d’Or winner has had a meeting in Paris with the boss of the capital club”.
France Football concludes: “The crushing defeat of PSG against Manchester City and now the deep feeling that the Ibrahimovic era has come to an end will no doubt hasten the Ronaldo project.”
Real Madrid play Villarreal on Wednesday night in La Liga with the Spanish title race reinvigorated by Barcelona’s recent staggering form.
With 31 goals in 33 league matches this season, and a tournament best 16 in 10 in the Champions League, 31-year-old Ronaldo remains as potent as ever. The link with PSG, so persistent over these months, makes sense when considering the French champions’ frustrated ambitions in Europe. Whether Madrid, still so reliant on their superstar striker, would be willing to sell is still an ambiguous at best proposition.
• In pictures: Real Madrid in training for La Liga fixture against Villarreal
For what it is worth, the agency owned by Ronaldo's agent Jorge Mendes, Gestifute, has refuted the report through a spokesman, Goal.com reported:
“Cristiano and PSG is a non-story,” the agency stated simply.
Which, well, is as unrelentingly open-ended as has been everything in the Ronaldo-PSG saga.
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