Real Valladolid Confirm Ronaldo Has Bought 51% of Club's Shares

La Liga side Real Valladolid confirmed on Monday that former Brazil footballer Ronaldo has acquired a 51 per cent stake in the club. 

They announced the purchase on their official Twitter account, while Ed Malyon of The Independent translated the news:

As noted by Football Espana, it was confirmed that the 42-year-old is the new president of the club, replacing Carlos Suarez, who will remain on the board of directors. The deal to buy more than half of the shares available is said to be worth around €30 million (£27 million).

Ronaldo's investment in the club caps off a whirlwind spell for Valladolid. At the end of last season they were promoted back to the top flight following a four-year spell in the Segunda Division.

As relayed by Football Espana, Ronaldo outlined his desire to "buy a team in the second division of Spain or England" and "do something innovative" when speaking to AS earlier in the year.

Speaking after completing the deal, the new Real Valladolid president said he was delighted to have got this wrapped up and that he aims to establish the club as a regular fixture in the top flight, per Tom Allnutt of Agence France-Presse:

Staying up in La Liga would be a massive achievement for Valladolid this season, although they have showed some promise in the early stages of the campaign. Real have drawn two of their opening three games, with their other fixture a narrow loss to Barcelona.

While Valladolid performed well in that 1-0 loss at home, afterwards they faced criticism for the state of their pitch at the Estadio Jose Zorrilla. The Barcelona players were far from happy with the condition it was in:

Still, Spanish football journalist Colin Millar thinks the club has a lot of parts in place to be a success:

Ronaldo will be hoping to replicate the success he had in his career on the pitch during his time as a club president.

The former striker was one of the finest players of his generation. Ronaldo won the FIFA World Cup twice with Brazil, along with two La Liga titles with Real Madrid and the Copa del Rey with Barcelona.

The ex-Inter Milan, AC Milan and PSV Eindhoven star was also crowned as FIFA World Player of the Year on three occasions.