Is Cristiano Ronaldo playing today for Juventus? Latest news on star’s status

After much speculation about Cristiano Ronaldo’s future this summer, the global soccer star will be starting his fourth Serie A season with Juventus on Sunday, Aug. 22, when the team opens its season at Udinese.

The 36-year-old Ronaldo is the reigning Serie A top scorer (29 goals last season) and although the European transfer window has not closed, he’ll be staying in Turin. With just one year left on his contract, it’s likely to be his final season in Italy.

“Ronaldo told me that he is staying at Juventus,” Juventus head coach Massimiliano Allegri said in the pregame press conference ahead of the Udinese match. “Ronaldo is an added bonus for us, because he guarantees a high number of goals. He has always trained well, I just read the gossip in the papers. He never told us he wanted to leave.” 

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There’s still much to accomplish for Ronaldo at Juventus. In addition to defending his Serie A scoring crown and winning his third Italian league title, Ronaldo will be hoping to lead Juventus to the elusive trophy the team acquired him to win: the UEFA Champions League. Juve hasn’t won the European club crown since 1996.

Will Ronaldo play for Juventus vs. Udinese?

The Juventus season kicks off Sunday with a Serie A opener against Udinese. It’s unclear whether Ronaldo will start after he missed a midweek tuneup match against Juve’s Under-23 team. The club made it known that he sat out to do individual training along with teammate Juan Cuadrado.

“Ronaldo didn’t play on Thursday because we were coming off a heavy training workload and I gave him half a day off,” Allegri said about Ronaldo’s absence in midweek, confirming he was available for selection against Udinese.

Italian sports daily Gazzetta dello Sport projects Ronaldo to be in the starting lineup against Udinese and reporter Fabiana Della Valle says “there don’t seem to be any particular problems for him to be on the field at Udine.” 

The Juventus schedule through the end of September is below:

Serie A top scorer favorites

Major sportsbooks in the USA list Cristiano Ronaldo as the favorite to retain the title of Serie A top scorer. His main preseason challengers are Atalanta’s Duvan Zapata and Lazio’s Ciro Immobile.

Ronaldo has not scored fewer than 21 goals in his three previous seasons in Italy’s Serie A, netting a total of 81 league goals during that span and 133 across all competitions for the Bianconeri.