Cristiano Ronaldo, the signing of the century for Italian football Transfer Market - Real Madrid Italian journalist Filippo Ricci's opinion

The potential transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo would be a massive deal, for Juventus and for a depressed Serie A. Personally, I don't know if the Old Lady have the sufficient money to carry out a huge operation like this, but the level of excitement that the simple possibility of this dream becoming reality has generated has been incredible.

There are supporters, newspapers and journalists who more or less believe in the possibility that Ronaldo will sign for Juventus, but there is nobody in the last few hours who has been able to look at this with an indifferent attitude. Many have spoken of it as a 'Pensiero stupendo' - a Patty Pravo song which, in English, means a 'Wonderful Thought'. Others have referred to it as a 'sugestion', which means 'suggestion' and which is used a lot in the football transfer market and which hides everything, or often nothing. Others have called this a 'Pazza Idea', referring to another Patty Pravo song and labelling this a crazy idea. The link has also been described a forbidden dream. But the point is that everybody is talking about it.

In the past 48 hours there hasn't been World Cup talk, only Cristiano Ronaldo talk. Even without Italy present, there has been sweeping interest in the World Cup, yet the focus is now on Ronaldo. It couldn't be any other way, because Ronaldo would change the Serie A market from second division level to Champions League calibre. I won't name specific names out of respect, but if you look at the other footballers being linked with Italian teams in La Gazzetta dello Sport these days, they simply don't compare to the five-time Ballon d'Or winner. Until now, the main signings in the Italian market have been Joao Cancelo, who moved from Valencia to Juventus, and Radja Nainggolan, who swapped Roma for Inter.

Then there is Cristiano Ronaldo, who is driving those in Italian football crazy. He's doing so for Juventus fans, because his arrival would make them a serious contender to win the European Cup after losing the Champions League finals of 2015 and 2017 to Barcelona and to Real Madrid respectively. However, his signing wouldn't only be important for Juventus. Italy, after missing out on the World Cup, needs a shake. This year we will have four Champions League teams again, but this is a competition which no Italian side has won since Jose Mourinho's Inter did in 2010. It takes a lot to imagine an Italian team being in the right condition to compete with the giants of Spain and England and with PSG and Bayern Munich.

AC Milan, the Italian club with the most Champions League titles, has been sanctioned and cannot even take part in the Europa League right now. This is a symbol of the major difficulties on and off the pitch.

Ronaldo would make half the footballing world turn their attention towards Italy. Obviously one player on his own wouldn't bring us back to the glory days of the past when we had Diego Maradona, Michel Platini, Zico, Socrates, Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten and Lothar Matthaus. However, he would allow us to hold our heads high after looking down for a long time, and he would allow Italy to earn attention again and for us to dream of an attractive league. If Juventus can sign Ronaldo then maybe the other clubs will be obligated to react and maybe they would wake up and attract more stars to our championship.

Those who bought the Serie A international rights - at a good price - will all of a sudden find themselves with an attractive Galactico, one who can draw in greater audiences and compete with LaLiga and Premier League broadcasts, which are currently superior. Serie A needs Ronaldo almost more than Juventus do. We'll now need to see if Juventus can find the money and put in place all of the conditions for what would be, for Italy, the singing of the century.