Is FIAT behind Cristiano Ronaldo's signing for Juventus of Turin?

€100 million for Real Madrid, five million in training compensation to be shared between Sporting Lisbon and Manchester United, and €12 million in commissions paid to the player’s agents, amounts to which must be added the €120 million in net annual salary that Cristiano Ronaldo will earn at a rate of €30 million each year over the four years he will remain at the Turin club according to his contract. These figures must be added to the percentage of image and advertising rights that the player will earn during his time at Juve, higher than what he had at Real Madrid (40 percent), and which, together with the amounts already mentioned, will amount to payments of over €400 million.

The signing of Cristiano Ronaldo, a 34-year-old player already in the final stage of his career, by Juventus of Turin is undermining the labour foundations of FIAT due to the unfair comparison this represents for the workers of the Italian car company, who in recent years have been engaged in a series of continuous efforts to resolve the difficult economic situation the FIAT group has been going through recently.

But, what does FIAT have to do with the signing of the Portuguese star? According to the Italian press, the hand that rocked the cradle in this whole operation has been that of the FCA group, with the aim of using Cristiano’s image to promote the group’s various brands and products around the world. If merely the possibility of the signing becoming known caused FCA shares on the stock exchange to rise by 7.2 percent (the equivalent of more than €50 million in market capitalisation), we will need to watch closely what may happen in the coming months. In fact, yesterday the announcement of the signing was not made until after five in the afternoon, when the stock market closes, to avoid distortions in the share price.

The Agnelli family, today represented by Andrea Agnelli, great-nephew of Avvocato Gianni, has maintained a long relationship with Juventus of Turin since the mid-1920s, when Edoardo Agnelli, Gianni’s father, bought part of the club’s shareholding to help resolve the serious economic crisis the bianconeri team was going through. In this way, the Agnellis took over the club’s presidency, which has since been passed down within the family and its close associates. In Italy, saying Juve is like saying FIAT. Gianni Agnelli always maintained a very close relationship, to the point of calling the players every night to find out whether they were at the club, or landing his private helicopter on the stadium pitch to watch the team’s training sessions. As Gianni himself acknowledged at the time, in his life he had three great passions: sailing his yacht, cars, through which he built an empire from FIAT, and Juventus of Turin.

FIAT is not directly behind the signing of Ronaldo for Juventus, but it is set to be involved, given the strong links between the Agnelli family and both institutions, and above all to benefit, given the possible agreements with the Portuguese star for him to act as an ambassador for the brands and their models that the signing may facilitate.

But not everything is rosy. The first thorns after the agreement have not taken long to emerge, and the FIAT workers have begun to express their indignation at the signing of the Portuguese star because of its high cost and because it comes at a time when redundancies have been carried out at the Pomigliano d’Arco factory. Indeed, a group of former workers at the plant has taken the opportunity to protest at the factory gates with banners reading “For Cristiano 400 million; and for the workers, a kick…”

The FIAT workers’ union has called a strike at the Melfi factory for 15 and 16 July and issued a statement denouncing the situation of the workers of the Italian brand, to highlight the affront that the Agnelli family (owner of 29% of FIAT’s shares and 63% of Juventus’s capital) making such a capital investment represents.

“It is unacceptable that FIAT workers make enormous economic sacrifices while the company spends millions of euros on a football player. They tell families to tighten their belts because the situation is not good, and then they invest a fortune in a player. Is that fair? Is it normal for one person to earn millions while thousands of families cannot make ends meet at the end of the month? We are all workers, and this difference in treatment cannot continue. FIAT workers have made a fortune for three generations, enriching anyone who moves close to this company, and in return have received only a life of misery,” the statement says.

The workers’ letter also stresses the need for the Italian group to invest in R&D to guarantee the company’s future growth, which is why it insists on more investment in research and development rather than in entertainment such as football: “Society should invest in car models that guarantee the future of thousands of people instead of enriching just one. That should be the purpose of whoever prioritises the interests of their employees, but they prefer the world of football, entertainment for others.”