Bogota: Colombia midfielder Juan Cuadrado said Thursday he is happy to give up his Juventus No.7 shirt to the Italian champions’ new signing and five-time Ballon d’Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo.
After nine years, four Champions League crowns and two La Liga titles with Real Madrid, Ronaldo completed a surprise move to Italy’s Serie A earlier this week, saying “The time has come to open a new stage in my life.”
“We know what he represents with his shirt and I didn’t have any problem (giving it up),” Cuadrado said in a press conference here. “For me the most important thing is to train hard and be ready for the coach when he sends me onto the pitch to play, which will now be with (the number) 588,” he added.
Meanwhile the ‘Ronaldo’ mania has swept Turin. An ice-cream flavor in his honour, a pizza named after him, queues to buy his shirt: For some, Cristiano Ronaldo is as important as the Pope. Enterprising businessmen are not missing the opportunity to celebrate the occasion and cash in on the arrival of the Portugal forward.
Leonardo La Porta, who has owned Gelateria Miretti in the heart of Turin for 30 years, has created a flavor called CR7 – Ronaldo’s famous brand name.
The 50-year-old La Porta is not a Juventus supporter, nor even a football fan, but has often creates flavors to mark important events in the city. However, he has only created one flavour in honour of a person before – when the Pope came to Turin in 2015.
“I put it on sale on the date 7/7 because it was the day it was rumoured Cristiano Ronaldo would be presented,” La Porta told this agency. “I thought of it a week before… the research was quite intense.”
Tommy Tegamino, which is owned by two Juventus season-ticket holders, brothers Filippo (31-year-old) and Tommaso Crozaso (26), now boasts the ‘Pizza CR7’. The deep-dish pizza is topped with stracchino cheese and black olives in the shape of the number ‘7’ and that also symbolises the black and white colours of Juventus. It costs an appropriate seven euros ($8.17).