Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi headlined the summer transfer window in 2021, taking their celebrated rivalry off the field and fighting for a record for shirt sales and announcements.
Ronaldo’s fairytale return to Manchester United was the biggest highlight of the transfer window. Portugal’s national team captain, 36, was edging closer to signing for Manchester City, but a timely intervention from Old Trafford legends – including Sir Alex Ferguson – facilitated a ‘return home’.
A post shared by Cristiano Ronaldo (@cristiano) on Instagram
Cristiano Ronaldo signed a two-year contract with Manchester United, with the option for another year. The news of his return – on August 27 – instantly broke the internet, with as many 2.9m tweets involving conversations about Ronaldo and Man Utd.
This beat the record previously set when Cristiano Ronaldo returned to Old Trafford for a UEFA Champions League match with Real Madrid in 2013 (1.6m tweets).
It was also the biggest day for United conversations on Twitter with more than 2.9m tweets, eclipsing previous highest total of 1.6m mentions when Ronaldo returned to OT for first time as a Real Madrid player in 2013, four years after his then world record £80m move to Spain
James Ducker (@TelegraphDucker), August 30, 2021
Besides the announcement, Cristiano Ronaldo was also a trending topic on multiple news portals and Twitter for the possibility of getting his iconic ‘number seven’ jersey with the Red Devils and reviving the CR7 brand at Old Trafford. Ronaldo wore the jersey — also worn by club greats Bryan Robson, George Best, Eric Cantona and David Beckham — in his first stint at United.
Lionel Messi, who left Barcelona for Paris Saint-Germain, chose a number 30 jersey – his first squad number jersey while at Barcelona – rather than requesting the number 10 kit.
Ronaldo himself had history with other numbers. In his only first-team season at Sporting CP, 2002/03, he wore 28, and when he first joined United in 2003 he asked for 28 again before being handed the number 7.
Manchester United, on the other hand, requested a special dispensation from the Premier League for Cristiano Ronaldo to wear the number 7. In light of Premier League rules, it was unlikely that Cavani’s shirt number would be passed on to the Portuguese star, since it states that a player can only take another’s squad number if that player leaves the club.
However, Daniel James’ transfer to Leeds United left the number 21 vacant. Cavani – who wears 21 for his country Uruguay – agreed to take up number 21 and vacate his number 7 jersey for Cristiano Ronaldo.
A post shared by Manchester United (@manchesterunited) on Instagram
When the news of Cristiano Ronaldo’s jersey number was revealed, all hell broke loose at the club’s online store and megastore, with Ronaldo No.7 shirts racking up £68.1 million in sales across multiple platforms in the first 72 hours, according to lovethesales.com.
The first 24 hours of Ronaldo’s shirt sales were reported to have broken the all-time record for a player after a transfer, overtaking Lionel Messi’s after his move to PSG that summer.
Cristiano Ronaldo vs Lionel Messi: Transfer impact on social media – who won?
Lionel Messi’s transfer to Paris Saint-Germain swept the internet instantly, with the announcement video recording 8.8m likes and 80,000 comments on Instagram. On Twitter, the announcement post generated 150,000 likes, 32,000 retweets and 2800 comments.
A Cristiano Ronaldo return to Manchester United was destined to see the internet explode with excitement. That was evident as the transfer agreement post with Juventus on August 27 attracted 12.9m likes on Man United’s Instagram account and 2m likes / 862,000 retweets on Twitter.
In 24 hours after Friday’s news broke that United had agreed a deal with Juventus for Ronaldo, the announcement became the most liked post by a sports team in social media history. Attracted more than 12.9m likes on United’s Instagram account & 862,000 retweets/2m likes Twitter
James Ducker (@TelegraphDucker), August 30, 2021
In a nutshell, Cristiano Ronaldo’s comeback to Manchester United completely overshadowed Leo Messi’s new adventure at Paris Saint-Germain when considering jersey sales and social media impact.
At the time, Ronaldo had the fastest-selling shirt in Premier League history.
How the homecoming ended
On the pitch, Ronaldo’s first season back went well for him and badly for the club. He scored 24 goals in all competitions in 2021-22, was named in the Premier League Team of the Year and won United’s Sir Matt Busby Player of the Year award, but United finished sixth.
The second season did not last. Ronaldo fell out with new manager Erik ten Hag, who used him as a substitute, and United terminated his contract on 22 November 2022, after an interview with Piers Morgan in which Ronaldo said he felt “betrayed” by Ten Hag and criticised the club’s management. On 30 December 2022 he joined Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr, where he still plays.
Author: William Paul
Featured photo: AFP / Andrew Yates