Cristiano Ronaldo's decision to leave Juventus and rejoin Manchester United is not a surprise in the view of the superstar forward's former team-mate Gianluigi Buffon.
Five-time Ballon d'Or winner Ronaldo finalised his return to United last Tuesday for an initial fee of £12.9million (€15m), signing a two-year contract with the option of a third.
That brought an end to the Portugal captain's three-season stay at the Allianz Stadium, during which time he scored 101 goals across 134 matches in all competitions.
Ronaldo's stint in Turin was rather more mixed on the trophy front as Juventus won the Scudetto in his first two seasons but missed out to Inter in 2020-21, despite the 36-year-old's league-high 29 goals.
That made Ronaldo, who last week became the all-time leading scorer in men's international football, the first ever player to finish as top scorer in Serie A, LaLiga and the Premier League.
Juve also fell short in the Champions League each time, including a shock last-16 exit to Porto last season, which ultimately played a part in the end-of-season sacking of Andrea Pirlo.
The Bianconeri have since reappointed Massimiliano Allegri, and Buffon – who spent two seasons with Ronaldo at Juve – believes the ex-Real Madrid player's decision to take on another challenge makes sense.
"I don't think the fans should be surprised," he told Radio anch'io. "He has the reputation of a great professional who rightly thinks about himself a lot.
"In these three years he has contributed with great performances and scored many goals. I don't see anything illogical in his choice to leave, he thought a lot about it.
"Juve are in a transition period. You pay a bit when these things happen. When you have a coach like Allegri, maybe you don't reach the target, but you get close to it."
Ronaldo was not the only high-profile name to depart Serie A during the most recent transfer window, with Gianluigi Donnarumma swapping Milan for Paris Saint-Germain.
Donnarumma missed just five league games for Milan over the past five campaigns, establishing himself as one of the world's best goalkeepers, but he has yet to feature for his new club.
The Italy international was late returning to training after being given an extended break on the back of Italy's successful Euro 2020 campaign and is now playing second fiddle to Keylor Navas.
Legendary Italian keeper Buffon, who spent a solitary season at PSG between spells with Juve, can understand why Donnarumma decided to leave boyhood club Milan.
"The choices of a lad, who is also a professional, must be respected," he said. "After years in which he has not played at certain stages, he has chosen to go.
"We are talking about a boy who has years and years left in his career, looking for the gratifications that I found.
"Paris Saint-Germain have one of their strengths in goal and that's why Keylor Navas is playing. I don't think Gigio will have problems being a reference."
New England Revolution v CF Montreal: Courtois targets strong mental approach
CF Montreal head coach Laurent Courtois has urged his players to prioritise their mental approach when they travel to New England Revolution on Wednesday.
Montreal snapped a four-match winless streak in MLS at the weekend with a 2-1 win over Charlotte FC, but they have registered back-to-back victories in the league since March.
They sit 12th in the Eastern Conference but still have an outside chance of making the playoffs if they can string together a run of positive results.
Courtois did not get over-excited by the win over Charlotte and is already looking at how to improve to get another three points on the board.
"I am happy, we are talking about things that are positive, but for me, there are always both [no matter the result]," Courtois said.
"It comes down to the mental approach. The message got through [against Charlotte], but if we look at the details, we could have conceded again, and then we would be talking about something else entirely."
Meanwhile, New England are bottom of the table, three points worse off than their opponents.
They suffered a 3-0 loss to Orlando City last time out and are now winless in three matches, but assistant coach Pablo Moreira is confident they can bounce back.
"All three goals were given up on set pieces, which is a tough one to swallow, and then through the run of play. So, [we'll] just build off of the positives and look forward to the game Wednesday," Moreira said, as quoted in the Blazing Musket.
"It's more that mentality after [conceding] and trying to improve that."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
New England Revolution – Aljaz Ivacic
Saturday's 3-0 defeat at Orlando was the 12th time this season New England have lost a regular season match by multiple goals, the most such losses this MLS season.
The 12 multi-goal losses are New England's most in a single season in club history, and Aljaz Ivacic will be desperate to keep a clean sheet.
CF Montreal – Josef Martinez
Josef Martinez has scored eight career regular-season goals against New England, tied for his most against any MLS opponent (D.C. United, Orlando).
No player has scored more goals against the Revs over the last 10 MLS seasons.
MATCH PREDICTION: NEW ENGLAND REVOLUTION WIN
New England and Montreal have each won three of the last six meetings in the fixture. The Revs scored 13 goals in their three wins while failing to score in the three defeats.
The Revolution are winless in three straight regular-season home matches (D2 L1). It has been four years since they went four straight home league games without a win (D4 L1 from March-September 2020).
However, Montreal are winless in 14 straight away matches in all competitions (D4 L10), including losing their last three away from home. Montreal's only longer road winless run in all competitions since joining MLS in 2011 was a 34-match run in 2013-14.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
New England Revolution – 52.5%
Draw – 24.3%
CF Montreal – 23.2%
Ronaldo can reach 1,000-goal milestone before retirement - Jorge Andrade
Cristiano Ronaldo is capable of reaching 1,000 career goals as long as he continues to look after his body, according to Jorge Andrade.
The five-time Ballon d'Or winner netted his 900th goal for club and country in Portugal's 2-1 Nations League win over Croatia on 5 September.
Ronaldo then added to his tally with a late winner in the 2-1 victory over Scotland three days later, setting him on his way to reaching the four-figure milestone.
Former Portugal star Jorge Andrade, speaking at the Thinking Football Summit organised by Liga Portugal, backed his compatriot to do just that.
"With Cristiano Ronaldo, nothing is impossible," Andrade said to Stats Perform.
"Since we've watched football, the idea of the 1,000 goals is associated with our great idol, Pele.
"But nowadays, both Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have managed to overcome other idols, Diego Maradona and Pele.
"They managed to be the highlight of the football game in a short time. It's not surprising Ronaldo can break that record. He looks after his body.
"He has a history of very few injuries. In terms of the Portuguese national team and the league he is in, he manages his efforts well."
Ronaldo has scored 132 of his goals for Portugal, with whom he won Euro 2016, while the other 769 have come at club level.
The 39-year-old has scored 68 times for current club Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia, where he has spent the past 20 months.
While Ronaldo continues to score freely in the Middle East, long-time rival Messi is now plying his trade in the United States with Inter Miami.
Andrade, best remembered for his time at Deportivo during his playing career, believes both deserve credit for taking on challenges elsewhere.
"The most important thing for them is that they share the experiences they have even in adverse environments," he said.
"For example, Messi now plays in MLS. It's a difficult league; it's a league that doesn't have much visibility.
"He managed to be there and increase visibility. Cristiano Ronaldo went to Saudi Arabia and it's a complicated environment.
"He increased the visibility of that championship, making it attractive for other players to play who had just the five major leagues as the main goal to play.
"In other words, these two players have changed the world of football."
Jorginho: Arsenal players laughing at Haaland form for Man City
Jorginho has said the form of Manchester City striker Erling Haaland is making him and his Arsenal team-mates laugh ahead of next weekend's meeting.
Haaland netted two more goals for City in Saturday's 2-1 comeback win over Brentford at the Etihad Stadium to maintain his side's perfect start.
That took the striker to nine goals across City's first four Premier League games this season - the most any player has scored in the competition's history at this stage.
Arsenal are the next side tasked with attempting to keep Haaland quiet in next weekend's showdown between the division's top-two sides.
Despite Haaland's superb form to begin the campaign, Jorginho insists Arsenal are unfazed heading into Sunday's battle in Manchester.
"Erling scoring again... it is starting to make us laugh," he said. "We look because we watch all the games and we love the Premier League.
"We watch [City] as well, which is normal. It doesn't get to our head. We need to focus on us and that is what we are trying to do."
Last season's runners-up Arsenal are two points behind early pacesetters City after winning three and drawing one of their opening four matches.
Mikel Arteta's men managed to grind out a 1-0 win in their North London derby with Tottenham at the weekend thanks to a Gabriel header.
Arsenal were without key midfield pair Declan Rice and Martin Odegaard, owing to suspension and injury respectively, but still got the job done.
"You learn more about each other," said Jorginho, who replaced Rice in midfield. "Everyone wants to improve and wants the best for the team.
"When you put the team in first place I think just good things can happen. Keep believing in what you are doing. I think we are on the right way."
Arsenal travel to Atalanta for their opening Champions League game on Thursday, but one eye is undoubtedly on the trip to City three days later.
"If you want to achieve big things you need to have the mentality of trying to win every single game," Jorginho said.
"That is what we need to do and that is what we want to do. That is what we are trying to do. You need to keep in this way.
"Keep believing in what you're doing. We are believing in what we are doing and we keep working hard to improve on what we need to improve."
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
