Ronaldo sells Cruzeiro to supermarket owner

Former Brazilian footballer Ronaldo Nazario has sold his majority stake in Cruzeiro, the club where he trained as a player, new owner Pedro Lourenco announced on Monday.
Lourenco, owner of the BH Supermarkets chain, confirmed the deal in statements to journalists at the club's headquarters in Belo Horizonte after several days of rumours about the negotiations.
"I am not buying a business, but a passion," he said, anticipating that the signing of Ronaldo will be made official on Monday at 16:00 local time (19:00 GMT).
According to local press, the value of the deal has been set at 600 million reais (around 109 million euros) in exchange for 90 per cent of the club's shares held by the former Brazil striker.
Ronaldo bought the club in December 2021, at a time when the historic Belo Horizonte outfit was in Serie B and immersed in a judicial recovery process to avoid bankruptcy due to debts.
At that time, the owner of Real Valladolid paid 400 million reais (today almost 73 million euros) and took over the club's debts, which amounted to 1 billion reais (around 182 million euros). Under his management, Cruzeiro returned to Serie A and finished 14th in the league standings in 2023.