Chelsea consider move for Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United

Chelsea are considering a move for Cristiano Ronaldo, but it remains to be seen whether Thomas Tuchel is sold on the idea of trying to sign the Manchester United forward.

Ronaldo wants to leave United because of what he perceives as a lack of ambition in their summer transfer dealings and his agent, Jorge Mendes, offered the 37-year-old to Chelsea’s co-owner Todd Boehly last month. Boehly is understood to be intrigued about the idea of signing the Portugal international and the American has since held further talks with Mendes.

However Chelsea are yet to firm up any interest and Boehly, the interim sporting director, is likely to be led by Thomas Tuchel’s thoughts on Ronaldo, who cited family reasons after failing to return to training at United on Monday.

Chelsea’s new ownership do not want to foist unwanted players on their head coach and it is unclear whether Tuchel wants Ronaldo, who has also been offered to Bayern Munich, Napoli and Paris Saint-Germain. The Chelsea manager plans to mould a versatile, fluid attack and has allowed Romelu Lukaku to join Internazionale on loan. Lukaku struggled to adapt to Tuchel’s system last season – the Belgium striker did not press enough and lacked mobility – and it is likely that signing Ronaldo would create similar problems.

Signing Ronaldo would give Chelsea a proven goalscorer but although he scored 24 goals in 38 appearances for United last season, it was debatable whether he had a positive impact on the team’s play. United, who have insisted Ronaldo is going nowhere and are unlikely to want to lose him to a domestic rival, finished sixth and often lacked cohesion.

Boehly will need to hold talks with Tuchel before deciding whether to test United’s resolve. There is a pressure