“Everything started when we meet with Jorge Mendes to talk about Cancelo. While we were talking about Joao, Mendes said:”You won’t believe it, but Cristiano wants to come to Juve” I told him:”Yes, I believe it, but it seems hard to me to make it work”
During his exclusive interview with Gianluca Di Marzio on Sky Sport, Fabio Paratici described his first encounter with Cristiano Ronaldo:”With him it was pretty simple because he only wanted to come to Juventus. We didn’t have to really convince him. I believe around the Champions League final on May 25th is when he decided. He was convinced, he said “If Juve is an option then I only want Juve. President Agnelli is a person who is very present, he’s always with us or always easily reachable. We were in the days of planning the season, this wasn’t planned but I told him:”There’s an opportunity, the important thing is that you listen to me until the end. You know, when you show up in someone’s office and you say that you must buy Ronaldo, it’s great news from sporting point or view, but there’s also a whole other side. But he understood right away”
“Agnelli told me he needed to think about it for a day or two, but he called me within 3 hours. To draft all the contract we bunkered down in a villa by Lago Maggiore for an entire day with Juventus’ and the player’s lawyers
There’s also a backstory tied to Paratici’s son:”Kids are fans of the most famous players and they make them dream and I believe these players let people have big dreams. My son had this wish for Cristiano Ronaldo and to have his jersey, so I remember that I went to see him play for Portugal and I bought a Ronaldo jersey for kids and my son wore it all the time. So much so that later on he asked me:”Dad why aren’t we buying Ronaldo? I answered because it’s impossible” then when it happened he told me “Dad you said it was impossible” I didn’t have an answer (he laughs)
Paratici described his working relationship with Beppe Marotta:”We complimented each other very well. In the sense that I worked solely on the sporting side, the scouting, the relationship with agents, choosing the players. Yes, I identified the players, then I would discuss it with him, since he’s very experienced, he knows football and the math as well as how far we could go in a negotiation. I brought things forward until the final phase, where he intervened with his experience and he helped me avoid as many mistakes as possible”
