The curse that threatens Ronaldo and Juventus

Plenty of top players have left the Bernabeu over the years in the search of new challenges or more regular football. Ever since Real Madrid's 10th European triumph, a host of big-name players have swapped clubs for one reason or another and with the benefit of hindsight, the majority of those moves were mistakes.

The first big exit was that of Mesut Ozil. The German playmaker departed for London as he looked to prove his top-level credentials. However, Arsenal's struggles in the meantime and the lack of team-mates of the same quality as those he had at Real Madrid limited what he could realistically have hoped to achieve. In the time that Real Madrid have won four Champions Leagues, among other trophies, Ozil has just three FA Cups and three Community Shields to look back on.

Two contrasting exits

Ozil missed out on Real Madrid's 10th European Cup title by a matter of months, but Xabi Alonso and Angel di Maria did not. The pair were key in securing the trophy for 'Los Blancos', but both ended up leaving at the end of the same season, with very different results.

Alonso headed for Germany to work under Pep Guardiola and enjoyed domestic dominance as he won three Bundesliga titles. However, success in Europe was harder to come by, partly down to Madrid, who dumped the Bavarians out of the Champions League at the quarter-final stage in 2016/17 (Alonso's last season as a player). Nevertheless, Alonso is the most successful of the Real Madrid departures.

The same cannot be said of Angel Di Maria, who made the move to the Premier League to play for Manchester United. A dream move on paper, the Argentine lasted just a season in English football before joining PSG, where domestic dominance is the norm. Similar to Alonso, European success has not been easy to come by for Di Maria, who also suffered heartbreak at the hands of his old side as Madrid knocked the Parisians out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage last season.

The Juventus contingent

Juventus have lured Sami Khedira, Alvaro Morata and Ronaldo to the club in recent years, along with another former 'Blanco' in the form of Gonzalo higuain.

Morata left after winning 'La Décima' and was agonisingly close to Champions League glory after helping his side sweep past  none other than Real Madrid, only for Luis enrique's Barcelona to emerge victorious in the final.

He then returned to the Bernabeu at the end of the season and helped the Spanish giants to another Champions League win, before heading for the Premier League with Chelsea, where he endured arguably the worst season of his career.

Khedira, much like Alonso, has a number of domestic titles to call upon, but it is much of the same story in Europe. The German was part of the Juve side beaten by Madrid as they won their 12th European title thanks to a 4-1 victory in Cardiff in 2017, before 'Zinedine Zidane's side dumped the Italians out at the quarter-final stage the following season after a pulsating 4-3 aggregate win.

Higuain's story is a familiar one. 'El Pipa' initially joined Napoli before later jumping ship to Juve, where he has shared their domestic successes and European failures alongside Khedira.

Other cases

Talk of James is inevitable here. The Colombian left Madrid last summer to join Bayern Munich in search of valuable game time and just like those before him, was made to watch as Real lifted the Champions League title without him.

James was part of the Bayern Munich side defeated by the Spaniards 4-3 on aggregate in the semi-finals.

Even Real's youth stars haven't been any more successful. although Mariano has shone for Lyon, they are unlikely to trouble the European elite any time soon, whilst Jese's career has been on a downward trajectory ever since he joined PSG.

Ronaldo: The exception that proves the rule?

However, the ghosts of the past do not matter one bit to Ronaldo. Other players may have made mistakes in leaving Real Madrid, but it is difficult to believe that the Portuguese didn't give his decision the required though given his club legend status.

A five-time Ballon d'Or winner, Ronaldo departed after breaking all manner of records in the Spanish capital and despite his advancing age, he intends to do exactly the same in Turin.

If there is one man who can break the 'curse', it is Ronaldo.