President Florentino Perez believes Cristiano Ronaldo will retire from football whilst still a Real Madrid player.
Perez has been re-elected Madrid President unopposed and begins his new mandate on Tuesday. In the meantime, he has reaffirmed his conviction that the former Manchester United player’s future lies at the Santiago Bernabeu.
“We want a Madrid that is based on Cristiano. I can assure you will win our 10th European Cup with him.
“Cristiano has two more years left [on his contract]. We want him to retire here and I think that is what he is going to do. He is the best player in the world so he needs to be the best paid in the world,” Perez told the Punto Pelota programme.
The 66-year-old also commented on Los Blancos’ search for a new Coach following the departure of Jose Mourinho, with Paris Saint-Germain’s Carlo Ancelotti and former Bayern Munich boss Jupp Heynckes the favourites.
“I’ve not spoken to anybody at PSG so I can’t say anything about Ancelotti out of respect. I don’t know what Ancelotti has spoken about with his club.
“To us it appeared he was free this year but afterwards it seemed that wasn’t the case, because he won the French League and his contract was extended for another year.
“He is a candidate for our bench if he is free but we have more [people] and we’ll have to study who is the best. Neither have we spoken to Jupp Heynckes and we’ll wait and see what he says at a Press conference on Tuesday,” explained Perez.
In addition, he feels it will be difficult to replace Mourinho with a Coach who possesses similar characteristics.
“It will be hard to find a boss like him, someone with the same intensity. He is very demanding and wherever he goes he leaves his mark, but as events unfolded we eventually came to the conclusion his departure was the best thing.”
