Cristiano Ronaldo Tweet Casts Cloud Over Future, Is Manchester United Return in Works?

For the better part of a year, there have been rumors floating around that Cristiano Ronaldo has been unhappy at Real Madrid. Granted, when you’re pulling in an estimated $35 million a year playing for, traditionally, the most glamorous soccer club in the world, there’s a lot to be unhappy about, right?

Apparently things between the Portuguese superstar and the club aren’t quite so hunky dory after all. This tweet Thursday from his official account doesn’t sound like it’s coming from a very happy man:

All the news about my renewal with Real Madrid are false.
— Cristiano Ronaldo (@Cristiano) June 13, 2013

Expect Ronaldo’s tweet to send the European rumor-mills into overdrive over the coming days.

There are already reports floating around that Ronaldo’s former club, Manchester United is lining up a bid to bring him back to Old Trafford somewhere in the $100 million range. Then there’s the latest noveau-riche club backed by a billionaire with aspirations of grandeur, AS Monaco, which could over make an obscene offer more than United and pay Ronaldo something like $400,000 per week to play in the small principality on the southern coast of France. Expect the other cash-rich clubs like Chelsea and PSG to enter the bidding war, or have their names associated with him, any minute.

If and when Ronaldo would move it sets off a whole chain of dominoes across the world of soccer. Any and all the names on this list of transfer targets could be on the move, especially Gareth Bale whom Real Madrid would covet even more if Ronaldo leaves the Spanish capital.

They don’t call it the “Silly Season” for nothing.