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Juventus have filed one last appeal in the ongoing dispute over unpaid wages owed to Cristiano Ronaldo, the Serie A club has announced.
When Ronaldo departed Juventus for Manchester United in the summer of 2021, it was claimed that he was owed a total of €19.6 million ($21.9 million at the current exchange rate) in deferred wages stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Three years on, a court ruled in Ronaldo's favor and instructed Juve to pay half of that amount. It was determined that the club had not deliberately attempted to withhold Ronaldo's earnings, while the player himself had not formally requested the money upon leaving the club.
That prompted an appeal from Juve which was, once again, decided in Ronaldo's favor earlier this year—Ronaldo did lose his own appeal seeking the full amount—and the matter is not yet resolved, as Juve have chosen to pursue one final appeal to Italy's Court of Cassation, the country's highest appellate court.
In the club's financial report for the 2025–26 season, Juve confirmed they are still waiting for a hearing date for their final appeal.
"The decision was confined to a review of the formal defects in the award identified in the appeal, and does not constitute a ruling on the merits of the case," Juve stated. "As such, it does not result in any change to the conclusions reached by the award.
"In any case, the economic and financial effects arising from the award have already been reflected in the Company's accounts since the 2023–2024 financial year, and therefore no adverse impacts on the current or future financial statements are anticipated.
"Juventus has lodged an appeal against this ruling to the Supreme Court, which was duly notified on March 27, 2026, and a hearing date remains pending."
The Juventus Argument Against Cristiano Ronaldo
During the Covid-19 pandemic, it was common practice for clubs that lost all matchday revenue due to stadium closures to reach agreements deferring their players' salaries in order to manage a financially difficult period. Documents presented to the courts confirmed such an arrangement between Juventus and Ronaldo during the 2020–21 season.
Problems arose after Ronaldo left the club in 2021. Juventus withheld the outstanding salary, claiming the forward had acknowledged they had no further financial obligations toward him, and Ronaldo did not immediately seek the funds until sending a letter that became notorious in Italian media under the rather unimaginative nickname of "the Ronaldo letter."
The details only surfaced during a separate investigation into financial irregularities at Juve in 2022, which led to the resignations of president Andrea Agnelli, vice-president Pavel Nedvěd, and the entire board of directors.
It later emerged that the agreement between Juve and Ronaldo did not actually bear the Portugal international's signature and was therefore not legally binding.
Juve continue to maintain that, since there was no official deferral agreement in place and Ronaldo did not request the funds during negotiations over his departure, they should not have been required to pay. That argument has already failed to persuade one court, but they are making one final attempt.