MANCHESTER: Cristiano Ronaldo hopes to make his return to playing for Manchester United in the club’s exhibition game on Sunday against Rayo Vallecano at Old Trafford after being absent from United’s 21-man squad that flew to Norway on Friday for a friendly match against Atlético Madrid.
Responding to an Instagram post commenting on his omission from the United squad in Norway, Ronaldo responded with “Domingo o rei joga,” or “Sunday, the king plays.”
If he does feature, it will be Ronaldo’s first match for United since the 4-0 defeat at Brighton on May 7.
The 37-year-old striker missed United’s pre-season tour of Thailand and Australia due to family reasons amid reports he wants to quit the club.
Ronaldo returned to United’s training ground earlier this week to discuss his future with new boss Erik ten Hag.
And the Portugal superstar has now claimed he is due to turn out for United on Sunday.
Ronaldo is reportedly looking for a move to a team that has qualified for the Champions League this season.
He held talks with United manager Erik ten Hag at the club’s training base on Tuesday.
United plays Atlético in Oslo on Saturday and has a final friendly against Rayo before opening its Premier League campaign against Brighton on Aug.7.
Before Ronaldo’s latest comments, United hadn’t said if he would be available against Rayo.
“Some of those absent from the squad,” United said, referring to the Atlético match, “will take part in Sunday’s game against Rayo Vallecano, while others are ill or injured.”
A look at what’s happening in European soccer on Saturday:
ENGLAND:
The first trophy of the English season is up for grabs when Manchester City and Liverpool meet in the Community Shield, the annual match between the Premier League champions and the FA Cup winners.
It’s a chance for players to get some more preseason minutes in their legs in a high-level match and for one of the teams to get a psychological edge heading into the start of the Premier League next week, with defending champion City and Liverpool the two title favorites.
They should both be starting their big summer signings in attack, too, in Erling Haaland (City) and Darwin Nunez (Liverpool).
City is without center-back Aymeric Laporte as he recovers from knee surgery and Liverpool will be missing forward Diogo Jota and goalkeeper Alisson Becker, who have both been out injured.
GERMANY:
Bayern Munich visits Leipzig for the German Super Cup between the league and cup winners.
Bayern won the Bundesliga for the 10th successive year last season and Leipzig won the cup for the first time in its short history.
The game is traditionally a curtain-raiser for the season but not this year as Borussia Dortmund and other teams played in the German Cup on Friday.
That competition continues Saturday with Bayer Leverkusen and Wolfsburg facing lower-league opposition in their first-round games.
Leverkusen, which finished third in the Bundesliga last season, visits third-division club SV Elversberg and Wolfsburg plays at fourth-tier Carl Zeiss Jena.
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