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E When Cristiano Ronaldo set up for his first press conference at Juventus, he did not feel really real. He was there, flesh and blood, a bright suit and a pristine haircut, smiling and badping his phone for a photo while his family was sitting in the front row.
This was not just a whimsical summer rumor. The move to Juventus had seemed when the first whispers began to flow a few weeks ago. It was not a mirage, as it appeared when it landed at Caselle Airport at the half-time of the World Cup final, misleading the many fans and journalists who he was waiting for Sunday morning, not even the newspaper Tuttosport In 1965, he was a 33-year-old footballer with a clear and compelling message about why he had left Real Madrid, where he won four Champions League titles , including three in the last three years – to start from scratch in Turin
"I want to leave my mark on the history of Juventus," he said. "It's one of the best teams in the world and I have been planning to come here for a little while.They have a great president, a great manager."
Alone a club like this could offer a player like him the platform he dreamed of for the next stage of his career. "I really want to show that I'm not like the others, that I'm different," continued Ronaldo. "It's a big club and, in general, players of my age are going to Qatar or China, with all due respect, so coming to such an important club at this stage of my career. career makes me very happy.I am very grateful to Juventus for this opportunity. "
They are also grateful to have it. How could they not be, with a player who has scored 450 goals since 2009-10 – only four less, according to Opta, than all the Juventus forwards combined at the same time.
Before even kicking Ronaldo has created a buzz around Juventus for which there is no easy comparison in Italian football this century. In the 24 hours of his official transfer last Tuesday, Juventus had sold 520,000 shirts with his name. The club added a million followers on Twitter overnight.
Turin is known as a reserved city, not subject to overexcitement, but there was talk of lighting one of its most famous monuments, the Mole Antonelliana. These plans were eventually put aside, with a gala unveiled for supporters at the Allianz stadium. No official reason was offered, although the popular feeling was that they had not wanted to give the impression that a player was bigger than the team .
Instead, we had 24 hours of hide and seek in Turin. Arrived early, Ronaldo immediately went to La Mandria Park, an exclusive place in the north of the city, to dine with the club directors and his entourage.
This transfer was all that people could talk about here and yet, without a single event to focus their enthusiasm on, you could have also crossed the center of Turin on Monday and missed everything. At least until you stopped at a crosswalk and heard a couple of eighty-two discuss what the signature meant for Gonzalo Higuaín or go through the window of the gelateria offering CR7 ice cream.
all, although it was reported that his arrival at La Mandria had thrown a marriage into a merry dismay. He was greeted by a crowd of some 300 fans before his medical appointment Monday morning, and sang while singing – although the Italian media soon rejoiced in his pronunciation, turning "Yuve" into "Giuve"
He spoke mostly in Portuguese at his press conference, trading only with English while he was answering a question from the Guardian – or, rather, dodged him. Asked what he felt personally – rather than football – to embark on a new adventure in a new country, Ronaldo quickly found his way back to the field. "I feel good, for me it's another challenge," he said. "I know it will be hard, I'll be ready, Juve is ready."
It's been too long, too much done, to be away from the things he wants to discuss. Yet there was sincerity in the words that he shared. Ronaldo spoke as a man who was really excited to have such an opportunity to test himself again at this late stage of his career. He pointed out that he was not thinking of the specific trophies he needed to win, nor to personal rivalries, saying, "I just want to think of myself in the present."
From his seat on the podium, Ronaldo seemed both shot proof and vulnerable, five-time winner of the Golden Ball, he does not lack confidence in his abilities, while being aware that opportunities like this will not be eternal. "I'm not 23, I'm 33," he said at one point – a fascinating contrast to his insistence in an interview several months earlier than his commitment to work hard and to eat well gave him a "biological age of 23 years".
At another time, however, he contradicts himself again, insisting: "I am still quite young." In Turin, for now, they will be content to know that he is really there.
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