There are 15 minutes to go. The ball speeds across the penalty area. And Cristiano Ronaldo — arguably the best footballer of his generation who Juventus has just bought for €100m— fluffs his lines, misses his shot and loses the opportunity to score on his home debut for the Italian club.
Yet, among the crowd of 40,000 fans at the Allianz Stadium in Turin, Andrea Agnelli, president of Juventus — and the man who signed the cheque — stands to applaud. It helps that a teammate rifles the ball into the net after Ronaldo’s slip, but the real triumph, says Mr Agnelli, was luring the Portuguese striker to the club in the first place.
“It was the first time that the commercial side and the sporting side of Juventus came together in assessing the costs and benefits [of a signing],” says Mr Agnelli, a scion of the billionaire family that has owned the club for 95 years. “The opportunity of Ronaldo was thoroughly assessed . . . and it made sense, both on and off the pitch.”
