Juventus have escalated their legal dispute with Cristiano Ronaldo, taking their case to Italy’s Court of Cassation in a bid to overturn a ruling that forces the club to pay the Portuguese forward 9.8 million euros in outstanding dues.
The dispute dates back to 2021, when Ronaldo left the club to rejoin Manchester United and requested that Juventus honor a pledge it made to pay 19.5 million euros in deferred wages during the Coronavirus pandemic.
Investigators found the private document, known as the “Ronaldo letter”, while digging into the club’s financial practices and the so-called “wage manoeuvre”, a series of agreements with players over how their dues would be paid during the pandemic.
Two rulings have already gone Ronaldo’s way as an arbitration panel decided by majority in April 2024 that Juventus must pay the player 9.8 million euros, plus interest and inflation-linked adjustments, roughly half of what he had originally demanded.
That same panel found no evidence Juventus had deliberately misled Ronaldo, and pointed out that he made no claim for the money when he left Italy in 2021.
Juventus appealed but the labour court in Turin threw out the challenge in January 2026 and upheld the original decision.
Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport has however revealed that Juventus have taken the fight with their former forward to Italy’s Court of Cassation, the final stage of appeal in the country’s judicial system.
The club’s financial report for the 2025-2026 season confirms they lodged an appeal on 27 March 2026 and are still waiting for a hearing date.
