Sporting Lisbon president Bruno De Carvalho has revealed that he will do everything he can to bring Cristiano Ronaldo back to Portugal before the forward hangs up his boots.
Ronaldo joined Sporting from Nacional in 1997 and spent six years with the Portuguese club, just one of which was in the first team, where he scored five times in 31 appearances during the 2002-03 season.
The Portuguese's performance in a pre-season friendly against Manchester United convinced the English giants to sign the attacker in the summer of 2003 and he spent six seasons in the Premier League before making the move to Real Madrid, where he has scored 365 times in 349 appearances.
Real Madrid will welcome Sporting to Spain in the group stages of the Champions League on Wednesday night, and their president has hinted that he will attempt to make subtle enquiries about Ronaldo.
"Yes, without a doubt, I would love for Ronaldo to end his career here, at home. He represents a lot for us and it would be beautiful if he could end his career here. He is a world ambassador. Cristiano always speaks well about us - he is very fond of the club," De Carvalho told Marca.
"As we found out when we saw his face when the draw came out, we are playing against our boy. It's going to be beautiful. I believe selling Ronaldo [to Manchester United] was a bad business deal both in sporting and financial aspects, I think he was also too young to leave."
Ronaldo, who returned from a knee problem against Osasuna at the weekend, has insisted on a number of occasions that he wants to end his career at Real Madrid.
Matt Law
