Cristiano Ronaldo’s arrival at Juventus in the summer of 2018 was one of the most extraordinary transfers in modern football history.
After nine seasons at Real Madrid, five Champions League titles and countless individual records, the Portuguese superstar chose Turin for the next chapter of his career. His move immediately transformed expectations around Juventus, Serie A and Italian football itself.
That three-year period is the subject of my book Cristiano Ronaldo: CR7’s Three Years at Juventus, now available in English.
Three Years That Changed Juventus
When Ronaldo joined Juventus, the club was already dominating Italian football.
The objective, however, was clear: Juventus wanted to take another step forward, particularly in Europe, and signing one of the greatest players of all time seemed capable of changing the balance of power.
From 2018 to 2021, Ronaldo became the central figure of the team.
Goals arrived with remarkable consistency, but his Juventus years were about more than numbers. His presence changed the international visibility of the club, increased expectations and placed every match under an even greater level of scrutiny.
Juventus won domestic trophies during his time in Turin, while Ronaldo continued to reach personal milestones and demonstrate the extraordinary competitive mentality that had defined his career.
Yet the story was never as simple as many expected.
The Champions League Dream
Ronaldo had been signed partly with one ambition in mind: bringing the Champions League back to Turin.
That dream would remain unfulfilled.
Juventus experienced three very different European campaigns during his time at the club, with eliminations that gradually increased the sense of disappointment surrounding the project.
And yet Ronaldo often remained at the centre of Juventus’ most memorable European moments.
His hat-trick against Atlético Madrid in 2019 remains one of the defining performances of his years in black and white: a night that perfectly represented the mixture of expectation, pressure and belief that accompanied his arrival in Italy.
More Than Goals
It is easy to reduce Cristiano Ronaldo’s Juventus career to statistics.
But those three seasons also reflected a period of profound change within the club.
Massimiliano Allegri left after Ronaldo’s first season. Maurizio Sarri arrived and lasted only a year. Andrea Pirlo then took charge of a team attempting to renew itself while still being expected to win immediately.
Different coaches, tactical systems and teammates surrounded Ronaldo, while Juventus gradually moved away from the stability that had characterised much of the previous decade.
His story in Turin therefore also becomes a way of examining the evolution of Juventus during one of the most complicated phases of its recent history.
From Turin to Manchester
Ronaldo’s Juventus adventure ended in the summer of 2021.
After three seasons in Italy, he returned to Manchester United, closing a chapter that had begun with enormous excitement and expectations.
Opinions about his Juventus years remain divided.
For some, the failure to win the Champions League inevitably weighs heavily on the overall assessment. For others, Ronaldo’s individual performances, goals and professionalism made his Italian experience a remarkable one regardless of the European results.
That debate is part of what makes those three seasons so interesting.
The Story Behind the Headlines
Cristiano Ronaldo: CR7’s Three Years at Juventus retraces that period from beginning to end: the transfer that shocked the football world, the expectations surrounding his arrival, the major matches, the goals, the trophies, the European disappointments and the final departure.
The aim is not simply to celebrate Ronaldo or to judge whether the experiment succeeded or failed.
It is to reconstruct an extraordinary period in which one of football’s greatest players met one of Europe’s most historic clubs — and in which expectations sometimes became almost impossible to satisfy.
For Juventus supporters, Cristiano Ronaldo fans and anyone interested in modern football history, those three years remain a fascinating chapter.
And now, that story is available to English-speaking readers.
Cristiano Ronaldo: CR7’s Three Years at Juventus
The English edition is now available on Amazon.com.
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