Ronaldo ‘almost certain’ Cristiano will stay at Real Madrid

Real Madrid are confident of keeping Cristiano Ronaldo and Ronaldo Nazario has warned the club they cannot afford to lose him.

Ronaldo Nazario says he is “almost certain” Cristiano Ronaldo will stay with Real Madrid.

The Portugal international has been linked with moves to former club Manchester United and Paris Saint-Germain after reports indicated he wanted to leave Madrid due to his unhappiness at scrutiny of his tax affairs in Spain.

Ronaldo, 32, has denied that he defrauded Spanish tax authorities out of €14.7million in image rights.

But Brazil icon Ronaldo, who won two LaLiga titles while spending five years of his career at the Santiago Bernabeu, believes his namesake provides too many goals to Madrid for the European champions to contemplate allowing his exit.

“I’m almost certain that Cristiano Ronaldo will stay,” Ronaldo said to Gazzetta dello Sport.

“When someone scores 50 goals a year [it] is too much certainty for a team to give up.

“I don’t think there is a team that can deal with it better,” he added, referring to the challenge of retaining the superstar.

Ronaldo has helped Portugal into the Confederations Cup semi-finals and is preparing for his country’s semi-final tie against Chile in Kazan on Wednesday.

Madrid president Florentino Perez has said he believes the star forward will remain at the club, even though he is “angry” about the situation.

Ex-striker Ronaldo also discussed his former club’s success against Juventus in the Champions League final.

“It was a beautiful final, with a much more competitive Juve than two years ago against Barcelona,” he said.

“In the second half though, Real always had the ball, they were superior in all aspects. Everything.”