Cristiano Ronaldo’s legal case against Juventus over £17m in unpaid wages – after he deferred months of pay during the Covid-19 pandemic – will begin on October 4

Cristiano Ronaldo‘s legal case against Juventus over unpaid wages during the Covid-19 pandemic will be heard on October 4.

The Portuguese forward is demanding £17.15million, the net amount he says the club promised him when he agreed to defer wages during lockdown.

With football in Italy suspended, Juventus players as a collective agreed to what was described as a ‘salary manoeuvre’ in March 2020.

A second deferral was agreed in 2021 as the club continued to struggle financially but negotiated individually with each player and their agents.

Ronaldo, 38, who now plays in Saudi Arabia for Al-Nassr, has decided he wants to collect the money owed to him.

Ronaldo spent three seasons with Juventus between 2018 and 2021, winning two Scudettos

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He has requested the relevant documents from the Turin Public Prosecutor’s Office and now Gazzetta dello Sport say the heading will begin on Wednesday next week.

Ronaldo spent three full seasons with Juventus between 2018 and 2021, scoring 101 goals in 134 matches and helping them win two Serie A titles and one Italian Cup.

He left them to return to Manchester United before moving to Saudi Arabia in December last year.

His move comes after Roma forward Paulo Dybala reached an agreement with Juventus for the approximate £2.6million he was owed.

Dybala has dropped a lawsuit relating to his compensation during the pandemic.

It also follows the revelation that former defender Leonardo Bonucci, now with Union Berlin, said he will pursue legal action against the Bianconeri, though due to an unrelated issue.

The defender, 36, said he was left ‘humiliated’ after manager Massimiliano Allegri froze him out of the squad and forced him to train away from the senior team, which Bonucci said was against his ‘rights’. 

Paulo Dybala recently managed to reach an agreement for £2.6m in wages from when he was with the club

Leonardo Bonucci, now at Union Berlin, has also said he will launch legal action against the club after he was ‘humiliated’ by being frozen out

It constitutes a pile-up of issues for a beleaguered Juventus outfit who currently face the Prisma investigation into their alleged false accounting. 

It explores inflated player transfer values, secretive salary arrangements with players, and partnerships with other clubs and agents which are deemed suspicious. 

Last season, they were docked 10 points for irregularities in the club’s accounting, a penalty which saw them miss out on the Champions League places.