Todd Boehly's Attempt to Sign Cristiano Ronaldo at Chelsea

Todd Boehly once tried to bring Cristiano Ronaldo to Stamford Bridge during the Portuguese star’s turbulent second spell at Manchester United, only for Thomas Tuchel to block the move.

According to The Athletic, the then-Chelsea owner met super-agent Jorge Mendes in Portugal and left the meeting captivated by the prospect of signing Ronaldo. The forward was deeply unsettled at Old Trafford at the time, pushing for a way out long before his eventual move to Al-Nassr in Saudi Arabia.

Boehly saw an opening. Tuchel saw a problem.

The German coach, in charge at Chelsea then, made it repeatedly and firmly clear that he did not want Ronaldo leading his attack. Style, structure, pressing – Tuchel believed the deal made little football sense, regardless of the commercial fireworks it promised. His stance did not soften.

That disagreement came against a backdrop of growing strain between owner and manager. Boehly, acting as interim sporting director, had chased a string of high-profile targets and come up empty. Matthijs de Ligt went elsewhere. So did Raphinha. Frenkie de Jong stayed put. Presnel Kimpembe did not arrive either. Each failed pursuit added to the tension.

Raheem Sterling was the exception. That deal, worth £47.5 million from Manchester City, went through with far less friction. Boehly personally drove the negotiations and finally landed a marquee name to headline his first summer in charge.

Only later did he publicly acknowledge how raw that recruitment process had been. Speaking at an event in February, Boehly admitted his approach lacked method.

“I found myself stuck in the interim sporting director role over the summer, without knowing what makes a footballer good,” he said. “But I knew that if Manchester City wanted Marc Cucurella, then I wanted him. It was as simple as that.”

It was a striking confession from the man who had tried to reshape Chelsea at speed, while juggling the roles of owner and de facto sporting chief.

By January 2023, Boehly stepped away from that interim sporting director position. The Ronaldo saga, the missed targets, the Cucurella logic – all of it now sits as an early chapter in a turbulent new era at Stamford Bridge.