Ronaldo’s Old Soccer Club Gets a Financial Lifeline
Sporting Lisbon has a grand history on the pitch, but a legacy of debt has made life precarious off it.
Sporting players celebrate during a Portuguese league football match in Lisbon.
Photographer: Patricia De Melo Moreira/AFP via Getty Images
In European soccer, 30 million euros ($34 million) doesn’t go very far nowadays. It’s a year’s salary for Juventus striker Cristiano Ronaldo and less than a third of his purchase price from Real Madrid in the summer.
But it’s the kind of money that could save the Portuguese club that nurtured the global star. Sporting Lisbon, one of three major teams in the country, was trying to raise that amount from a bond sale to avoid the risk of defaulting to creditors. As of Thursday, buyers had pledged 26 million euros.