Joan Laporta suggests Barcelona turned down Cristiano Ronaldo in favour of Robert Lewandowski

Cristiano Ronaldo-Portugal against France

Barcelona president Joan Laporta has suggested that his club turned down the opportunity to sign Cristiano Ronaldo in favour of a move for Robert Lewandowski.

Ronaldo has told his club he wants to leave Old Trafford this summer in order to play Champions League football for the upcoming season. He has been recently linked with moves to Chelsea, Bayern Munich, and Atletico Madrid, with his agent Jorge Mendes offering him to these clubs. However, all these clubs have distanced themselves from such reports.

Another club that was linked with Ronaldo is Barca. The Catalan were looking to sign a centre-forward this summer.

And according to the club president Laporta, the club were indeed offered the chance to sign Ronaldo.

Speaking to CBS Sports, Laporta seemed to suggest that Barça prioritised Lewandowski’s signing over Ronaldo.

When asked if the report was true, Laporta told CBS Sport via GOAL, 

“Well, this type of story is all within the process of the summer window. There always appears a lot of news.

“But in the end, the truth is we wanted Lewandowski. We have a very good relationship with Jorge Mendes. I have known him for a long time. He is one of the best player agents. He knows how to do his job and I respect him.

“In this case, we decided to go for Lewandowski and knew he was crucial to our success. So we went to Bayern instead. This is the reality. The other [Ronaldo] topic is just part of the ‘little history of football. It’s a very nice story, but you will always hear lots of contradictory news about it.”

The club chief was further pressed to clarify whether Barcelona even considered a move for Ronaldo, to which he said: “We got Lewandowski. He was our main target and I prefer not to comment further.”

He added: “Ronaldo is a very good professional, and he’s still so fit. He’s a player who is very ambitious and competitive and I am sure he has a lot of options. He’s still a player of Manchester United, an extraordinary club that I respect very much. His future is not my business. It’s the business of Manchester United and Cristiano.”