ROME, April 18 — Juventus must pay Portuguese star Cristiano Ronaldo €9.7 million (RM49.5 million) in back wages for the 2020-21 season, the Italian courts announced yesterday.

The Court of Arbitration, to which Ronaldo appealed, "orders Juventus Turin to pay the sum of €9,774,166.66”, plus interest and procedural costs, it stated in its decision.

The sum equates to the difference between the salary actually received by Ronaldo and that which he should have received after tax and other deductions.

Ronaldo, who spent three seasons in Italy with Juventus (2018-21) before joining Manchester United (2021-22) and then the Saudi club Al Nassr, was claiming €19.5 million but the arbitration panel reduced that by 50 per cent.

Contacted by AFP, Juventus declined to comment, but said it would be issuing a statement "shortly”.

According to the rankings drawn up by the American business magazine Forbes, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner was the world’s highest-paid sportsman in 2023, with US$136 million, including US$46 million in wages.

Juventus, who are listed on the stock exchange, recorded losses of €123.7 million in the 2022-23 financial year, which ran to the end of June, it announced in October.

No provision has been made in the accounts of Italian football’s most successful club, currently third in Serie A, for the payment of this wages backlog. — AFP