Bruno Fernandes wants Cristiano Ronaldo to return to Sporting Lisbon before retiring

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Bruno Fernandes wants his Manchester United and Portugal teammate Cristiano Ronaldo to return to Sporting Lisbon before he retires.

The 37-year-old joined the Red Devils for the first time in 2003 from the Portuguese giants in a £12.2m deal.

United’s legendary number seven spent six years under the wing of Sir Alex Ferguson where he won three Premier Leagues, a Champions League, FA Cup, two League Cups, Club World Championship and the first of five Ballon d’Or awards, as well as the 2007-08 Premier League golden boot where he netted 31 times.

After nine trophy-laded record-breaking years with Real Madrid following his world-record £80m move from the Red Devils, FIFA’s all-time top men’s scorer joined Italian giants Juventus.

The 189-time Portugal international arrived in Turin having won four further Champions League’s and two La Liga’s, as well as becoming Los Blancos’ all time top scorer with 450 goals from 438 games.

In his three seasons with the Old Lady, Portugal’s most capped player and all time top scorer won back-to-back Serie A titles, scored 101 goals, but never got past the Champions League quarter-finals with the Bianconeri.

With rumours of a potential switch to Manchester City building momentum, Ronaldo secured a £12.8m emotional return to Manchester United last August.

Despite the Reds producing their worst season in Premier League history, United’s returning number hero was the club’s top scorer with 24 goals across all competitions.

Bruno Fernandes wants Cristiano Ronaldo to return to Sporting

With one year left to run on his current Manchester United contract, which includes the option of a further year, Ronaldo has been linked with a return to his boyhood club Sporting before calling time on his legendary career.

Former Sporting Lisbon captain Fernandes, who was United’s second top scorer last season with 10 goals, believes that Ronaldo may be tempted to return to the Portuguese side when his second stint with United comes to an end, and its something that he would like to see happen.

Fernandes told Portuguese outlet Record: “It would be a great moment for the sportinguistas, almost everyone expects that; I would like that to happen.

“He has the ambition to continue playing for many years, we will see what he will decide – I hope – when his contract with United ends, but the ambition and dream of sportinguistas would be to see Ronaldo playing for Sporting.”

During his solitary season in the Sporting first team before being snapped up by Sir Alex, Ronaldo scored five goals and laid on six assists from 31 appearances and won the Portuguese Super Cup.