NEW DELHI: The Italian courts in Rome ruled on Wednesday that
Juventus
must compensate Portuguese football star
Cristiano Ronaldo
with 9.7 million euros ($10.4 million) in unpaid wages for the 2020-21 season.
Ronaldo had appealed to the
Court of Arbitration
, which determined that Juventus Turin must pay him 9,774,166.66 euros, along with interest and procedural costs.
This sum represents the discrepancy between the salary Ronaldo received and the amount he should have received after taxes and other deductions.
While Ronaldo initially sought 19.5 million euros, the arbitration panel reduced the amount by 50 percent. Ronaldo, who played for Juventus from 2018 to 2021 before stints at
Manchester United
and
Al Nassr
, successfully secured compensation for the unpaid wages during his tenure with the Italian club.
Contacted by AFP, Juventus declined to comment, but said it would be issuing a statement "shortly".
According to the rankings compiled by
Forbes
, the five-time Ballon d'Or winner was the highest-paid sportsman globally in 2023, earning a staggering $136 million, with $46 million attributed to wages alone.
However, Juventus, a club listed on the stock exchange, revealed losses of 123.7 million euros during the 2022-23 financial year, which concluded at the end of June, as announced in October.
Despite this substantial financial deficit, no provision has been included in the accounts of the renowned Italian football club, currently occupying the third position in Serie A, to address the outstanding backlog of wages owed to the player.
(With AFP inputs)
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