Juventus star Cristiano Ronaldo made it clear he was keen to join the Serie A champions as early as January, agent Jorge Mendes has revealed.

The 33-year-old left Real Madrid for Italy in July, two months after guiding the Spanish giants to a third successive Champions League title.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner has scored 12 goals in all competitions for the Turin side, and Mendes admits talks to send Ronaldo to Italy started early in the year.

“He is the best player in the history of the game, so a lot of teams wanted him,” Mendes said to Tuttosport.

“Even so, Juve deserve a lot of credit for making this deal happen.

“Cristiano told me back in January that he wanted to join the Bianconeri. At that moment in time, I did not think that a deal would be possible, but I guess that I was wrong.

“I met up with Paratici and [vice-chairman Pavel] Nedved before the Juve-Real game in Turin [in April] and I then met up with Agnelli, too. That’s when I started to believe that a deal was possible.”