Cristiano Ronaldo had the last laugh in his long-standing legal battle against Juventus over unpaid wages.
The 40-year-old is one of the most decorated players in the history of the sport, and his illustrious career includes a three-year stint in Turin that yielded two Scudetto titles, a Coppa Italia trophy, and two Italian Super Cups.
However, this spell was also marred by the COVID-19 pandemic, which prompted Juventus to take drastic measures which later returned to haunt them.
During the two campaigns affected by COVID, the Turin-based giants secured agreements with their players, who agreed to waive four months of their salaries to help the club mitigate the financial crisis caused by the pandemic.
However, it was later revealed that some players, including Ronaldo, didn’t genuinely accept a reduction in their salary, but were instead promised to defer their wages to the following financial years.
Cristiano Ronaldo (Photo by Valerio Pennicino/Getty Images)
Therefore, when Juventus refused to pay CR7 the remaining part of his salary, he decided to take them to court.
In April 2024, an arbitrary tribunal ruled in favour of the Portuguese superstar, ordering Juventus to pay him circa €9.7 million, although the player had requested a figure around €19 million.
Juventus thus decided to appeal the ruling, asking the court to retrieve the aforementioned sum paid to the player.
But according to La Repubblica (via Tuttosport), the final verdict was also in favour of the legendary striker.
The Court of Appeal not only upheld the original verdict, but also ordered Juventus to pay €80,000 in legal fees.
Juventus had already paid dearly for these so-called salary manoeuvres in what the Italian media referred to as the ‘Prisma’ investigation, which also coincided with the ‘Plusvalenza’ case, related to capital gains.
These two legal cases loomed large over the club between 2021 and 2023, resulting in the resignation and the subsequent banning of former Juventus president Andrea Agnelli and some of the club’s top officials, in addition to a 9-point deduction in the Serie A 2022/23 campaign.
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