El País is a Madrid based newspaper and is the highest-circulation daily in Spain. Today they have written a written discussing the likelihood of Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Real Madrid for Manchester United.

The renewal of Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract with Real Madrid became a complex crossroads when Manchester United came into the picture. Cristiano was offended by a statement from Florentino Perez in an interview with Antena 3 issued on June 7, in which he said that “everything has a limit” when referring to the contract offer from Real Madrid for Ronaldo.

Ronaldo, who a year ago, felt the Madrid president mocked him during a conversation they had, interpreted the words as a repeat of this contemptuous attitude which hurt Ronaldo.

Perez was furious when he found out United have made contact with Ronaldo for a meeting. Ronaldo, who has an excellent relationship with the executives of United, apparently said he felt compelled to greet them.

United and Cristiano have agreed to meet in the coming days. As FIFA prohibits clubs having official contact with players who have contracts in place elsewhere, both sides agreed to deny any kind of meeting. No fixed place or day has been arranged, but perhaps in will be in Funchal, the Algarve, or place in the world that Cristiano chooses.

The English club told Jorge Mendes, Ronaldo’s agent, that if he remained at Madrid without a re-newing his deal, that in January 2015 they will pay him €50m as his salary. Cristiano regarded it as a gesture of trust and respect for him from the club that changed his life as a teenager.

It is possible that United will offer a contract this summer. But Cristiano isn’t sure. His main question is about David Moyes, the new manager, who he does not know. In addition to that, he likes playing for Madrid and is happily living in the city.

Until now there has not been any negotiations between Cristiano and Madrid. Once the club called the player’s agent, in mid-May, to send him a principle of offer of renewal until 2018 with net income of €14m annually. Mendes said he would study the proposal with his client but never responded, when normally in these cases the agent would ask for date and time to sit at a table to discuss the details. Mendes strategy was to delay things because time favors Cristiano. They decided to wait and examine everything Florentino Perez said.

When the President told Cadena SER that he intended for Ronaldo to become the highest-paid player on the planet, they welcomed it. Cristiano loved this because it meant he had received something like the apology he had expected. Mendes liked the comments that Florentino Perez in relation to the signing of Neymar even more, in the same interview, when he confessed that he wouldn’t have paid €150m for the Brazilian. The conclusion was automatic: If you pay that for a man likeNeymar, who has not shown anything in Europe, Cristiano has to earn at least a net salary of €20 million a year.

Pleased with the comments from the president, Cristiano went on to say, for the first time, that he was optimistic. “I know that we will reach an agreement to renew,” he said, after a match with Portugal.

While the player remained focussed on Portugal, in Gestifute, his representation, lead by Mendes, continued examining the hefty material produced by Florentino Perez on his tour of interviews. Suddenly, there were problems on the radar. On June 7, in Antena 3, Perez said that “everything has a limit” and added that Christian “is a very sensible guy”. On June 10 on Marca TV, the President added: “we don’t need the help of any agent that wants to make Cristiano earn more. Those are wrong demands.”

When Cristiano examined the dossier of the last part of the series of interviews, he discovered things that irritated him. He suspected that the President had not been frank with him and that his renewal would be used for political ends. It was when he posted on Twitter: “all the news about my renewal with Madrid are lying”. In the surroundings of Florentino Perez, they interpreted the message as a setback. The negotiation that had never existed was delayed again.