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| After nine glorious years in Spain Ronaldo made the switch to Italian giants Juventus for the upcoming season |
As one of the world's most recognizable brands Spanish giants Real Madrid currently sit pretty as not only as one of the most successful teams in football history, but also as one of the financial powerhouses in the world of sports.
Madrid were listed by Forbes as the third most valuable sporting team in the world and only Manchester United and NFL giants the Dallas Cowboys are worth more than the Spanish giants, and in terms of the revenue generated by football teams only Manchester United make more than Real Madrid.
And with their recent success over the last few seasons with their history making feats with their four European trophies won in the last five seasons, much of their success on and off the field can be attributed to former star man and all time top scorer Cristiano Ronaldo.
Highly talented, widely popular and one of the most recognizable faces in the world, Ronaldo's move to Real in 2009 served as the great equaliser to the stranglehold that arch rivals barcelona were beginning to assert over not only Spain, but also in Europe as the Catalans assembled a legendary team boasting the names of Argentine superstar Lionel Messi and midfield maestros Xavi and Andres Iniesta.
In his nine years in Madrid Ronaldo helped guide Los Blancos to 16 honours and proof of his impact at the Bernabeu can be seen in the increased revenue generated by Real which climbed steadily from €401 million on his arrival to €674 million as of 2017.
While the loss of the Ronaldo marketing machine won't impact Los Blancos until sometime down the line, Ronaldo the player's exit surely will in the immediate term.
In just nine years Ronaldo scored 450 goals making him the club's all time goal scorer and looking back at last season the Portugal international's contribution to Madrid cannot be downplayed.
After a bad start to the season which eventually lead to the loss of their league crown Ronaldo was the biggest factor in dragging Madrid into making the season more memorable contributing 44 of the 110 goals Madrid would score throughout the season.
To put things into perspective in winning last season's Champions League Madrid scored 28 goals. Ronaldo top scored in that competition last season with 15 goals.
Madrid's next highest goal scorer for 2017/18 season was the injury prone Gareth Bale who scored 21 goals last season in all competitions.
All factors considered, Madrid's move to sell Ronaldo for just € 112 million registers as an odd bit of business for the Spanish giants. Yes Ronaldo is getting up there in the years, but considering the current climate with the bloated values in today's transfer market Ronaldo could have easily been sold for four/ five times that amount.
With Madrid now out looking for Ronaldo's replacement its becoming clear how much of a favour Madrid did for Juventus.
Recently Madrid have all but ended their interest in Chelsea midfielder Eden Hazard after the Blues slapped a £ 200 million transfer fee for the Belgian.
The transfers of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe, by all appearances, aren't likely to happen and reports from Germany have Robert Lewandowksi staying with Bayern despite reports that the Poland forward wanted to start a new chapter in his footballing career.
This all means that the next few weeks will be highly interesting as the footballing world wait to see what actions and more in particular who Madrid will sign to fill the void left by Cristiano Ronaldo.
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