The unhappy forward is desperate to start talks on a fresh six-year deal, even though he has three years to run on his current agreement.
Ronaldo, 27, is on £9.6m a year but, because of Spain’s easygoing tax regime, takes home £7.2m.
He is now demanding take-home pay of £12m a year. Even under existing tax rules, that would mean £14.5m a year gross.
The problem for Madrid is that, in two years’ time, Ronaldo’s tax rate will jump from 24 to 52 per cent.
And it means that in order for him to get £12m after tax they will have to cough up almost £25m a year — £480,000 a WEEK.
Ronaldo has been seeking talks about a new deal since January.
But Madrid chiefs have baulked at the figures he has been discussing, especially with UEFA’S new financial fair play rules due to start in two years’ time too.
Ronaldo has yet to make any formal demands but his camp believe he deserves the world’s best contract, dwarfing those signed by Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka in China.
He has scored an astonishing 114 goals in just 104 games since joining the Spanish giants from Manchester United for £80m three years ago.
And he is all but priceless in terms of the money he generates for the club in merchandising, sales and sponsorship deals.
The Portuguese star has a massive £791m buyout clause in his contract but by revealing his ‘sadness’ after his brace in Sunday’s 3-0 win over Granada, he has opened the door to a possible move next summer.
Selling Ronaldo still seems the most unlikely scenario but it could happen.
This was a battle of wills and Ronaldo blinked first, risking the wrath of fans, team-mates and club president Florentino Perez.
Ronaldo’s relationships in the dressing room are not always ideal.
There is tension between the Portuguese speakers — Ronaldo, Pepe, Marcelo, Fabio Coentrao — and the Spaniards, principally captain Iker Casillas and Sergio Ramos.
The last two are not afraid to have it out with Jose Mourinho and a new bust-up with the boss was leaked to newspaper El Pais only last week following a shock loss to Getafe.
Ramos openly accused Mourinho of protecting his countryman Coentrao when he was to blame for one of Barcelona’s goals in the Super Cup first-leg loss at the Nou Camp.
Mourinho then slammed the team — and, by association, the Spain defender — in public for a gaffe in one of Getafe’s goals.
Madrid’s bigwigs have hinted they will not agree to his demands. saying they see Ronaldo’s stance as “provocative, in a period of mass unemployment and austerity in Spain.”
But Ronaldo said: “I am sad and the people at the club know about it. That is why I don’t celebrate goals. It’s about professional issues. I can’t say any more.”
Madrid promised Ronaldo a new deal in a showdown between the winger, his agent Jorge Mendes, Perez and club marketing director Jose Angel Sanchez last January.
He was then given assurances of talks over a revised deal in the summer, only to sit and watch as Mourinho, Angel Di Maria, Alvaro Arbeloa and Raul Albiol penned new deals.
In June Ronaldo told Madrid daily Marca: “I want to finish my career here but that is something that already depends on other people.”
It then emerged that Ronaldo met Perez and Sanchez again on Saturday and told them he wanted to leave.
If this was his way of seeking attention, it has already backfired spectacularly.
