A year after returning to Manchester United from Juventus, Cristiano Ronaldo has sought to leave Old Trafford since last month and has been widely believed to be eager to end his stint with the club. The 37-year-old missed the pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia due to 'family circumstances'.

CR7 had widely expected to sign with a team in the UEFA Champions League; he had only 10 days of training under new manager Erik Ten Hag, so he was unprepared for the match and unfamiliar with his methods.

Late last month, though, he reported back to Carrington and played in their last pre-season friendly against Rayo Vallecano. The Portuguese then made an appearance off the bench in last weekend's 2-1 Premier League defeat to Brighton, and he is in line to start this weekend's match against Brentford.

Why Cristiano Ronaldo could stay at Manchester United

If the rumors that Cristiano Ronaldo wants to leave Manchester United are to be believed, one should know that he doesn't have as many serious suitors now as he had back when he originally announced his intention to quit. The likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Chelsea, Bayern, and Atletico Madrid have all reportedly passed on signing the veteran.

Even Florentino Perez, president of Real Madrid, laughed off speculation that the Portuguese forward may return to the club by taking an apparent jab at his advanced years. Spanish newspaper AS reports that Ronaldo will stay at Old Trafford through the transfer deadline even though he wants to leave the club. This is if no last-minute surprises occur.

To ensure he is in peak physical form for the 2022 World Cup, Cristiano reportedly plans to stay with the Red Devils at least until the 2023 January transfer window. On Friday, before their road trip to Brentford, Ten Hag was questioned whether it is true that the superstar wishes to depart:

"That is your assumption. That is not what he is telling me. So I deal with the players we have and we plan with him for this season and we have to fit him into the team so he has to come at the right fitness levels so that he can do the job that we expect him to do."