CRISTIANO RONALDO has agreed to defer £3.5million in wages to ensure Juventus can pay their staff amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Serie A has been put on hold indefinitely as Italy is one of the hardest hit countries in the world and Juve’s players have agreed to do their bit to help the club out.
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Cristiano Ronaldo will take a £3.5m wage deferral to ensure Juventus can pay their staff
Ronaldo is one of several members of the squad to sign up to the deal after captain Giorgio Chiellini video called senior members of the team to talk it through.
Veteran defender Chiellini is said to have had discussions with the board before calling Ronaldo and Gigi Buffon to get their thoughts.
Once the pair agreed, 35-year-old Chiellini rolled out the suggestion to the rest of the squad.
Juventus issued a statement on Saturday night confirming the four month wage deferral and thanked their players and staff for their hep.
It read: “The economic and financial effects of the understanding reached are positive for about £81m for the 2019-2020 financial year.
“The understanding provides for the reduction of the compensation for an amount equal to the monthly payments of March, April, May and June 2020.
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“Should the current season’s matches be rescheduled, the Club will negotiate in good faith with the players and the coach conditional increases of compensation according to the actual resumption and finalisation of official competitions.
“Juventus would like to thank the players and the coach for their commitment at a difficult time for everyone.”
It was originally thought Ronaldo would lose £8.4m in salary but the final figure is less than half that.
The Portuguese star, 35, boasts a net worth of around £361m, according to Forbes and has just splashed out £8.5m on a limited edition Bugatti.
That tally is in no small part down to his monster £30m-a-year wages at Juventus – around £510,000 per week.
On top of that, CR7 has a £773million lifetime deal with Nike.
Ever since Italy went into lockdown due to Covid-19, Ronaldo has sought refuge on his home island of Madeira.
He also donated five ventilators to hospitals in Portugual to help combat the deadly disease.
Italy has had 92,472 cases with 10,023 deaths while Portugal has had 5,170 confirmed with 100 people dying.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
