Eintracht Frankfurt CEO reveals Cristiano Ronaldo links from 2022 | OneFootball

Eintracht Frankfurt’s sporting director, Markus Kroesche, has revealed that the club could have signed none other than Cristiano Ronaldo back in the summer of 2022.

Speaking on German tabloid BILD’s podcast Phrasenmaher, the 44-year-old sporting director of the Hessen State club exclaimed he got a call from the board CEO at the time.

“Axel Hellmann was in contact at the time. He came into my office and said: We can sign Ronaldo.

“Are you kidding me?”, Kroesche responded in a state of shock and perhaps a hint of irony.

Reverting back to the 2021-22 season clarifies things here. Cristiano Ronaldo and his then employers Manchester United had missed out on Champions League with a sixth-place finish in the Premier League that year.

An ever-determined Ronaldo, despite being 37 at the time, was still keen to prove himself at the pinnacle of Europe’s highest level. The Portuguese superstar’s agents were on the phone to the likes of Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund – but also Eintracht Frankfurt.

At that time, Die Adler had qualified for the forthcoming Champions League having defeated Rangers in the Europa League final in May 2022. But despite a ‘financial plan’ being drawn up, Kroesche was unconvinced:

“To be honest, I didn’t read it (the Ronaldo transfer proposal). “It was immediately clear to us that it didn’t really make sense.

“I once spoke to Fabio Paratici, the former manager of Juventus Turin, about how much Ronaldo changes the club and that you have to book other hotels because the attention is so much higher. Ronaldo would have been too big for Eintracht,” Kroesche concluded.

Ronaldo eventually signed with Saudi Arabian side Al Nassr on a free transfer in May 2023 to net a cool €193.6million per-annum. Frankfurt acquired Randal Kolo-Muani – also on a free – and returned 15 goals and 14 assists in 32 Bundesliga games.