Retired Brazilian soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo has bought a majority stake in second-tier club Cruzeiro, where he started playing the game.
The 45-year-old former Real Madrid striker - nicknamed The Phenomenon - succeeded in completing the deal with the help of the Brazilian investment bank XP, which announced the agreement on Saturday.
Ronaldo played for Cruzeiro as a teenager in the early 1990s, before becoming one of the most successful strikers in the history of the game.
The transaction was carried out through Ronaldo's company, Tara Sports, and the bank said it was still "subject to certain circumstances".
The deal includes the former player's investment of 400 million riyals ($70 million) in the club, who spent two years in the second division in Brazil.
"I am very happy with the completion of the operation," Ronaldo was quoted by O Globo, adding that he wanted to "return what he took from Cruzeiro, and return the club to the place it deserves."
This is the second investment for the former PSV Eindhoven, Inter Milan, Milan, Barcelona and Corinthians player, after he bought 51% of the shares of Spanish club Valladolid in 2018.
The agreement comes a few months after the Brazilian Senate ratified a law allowing clubs historically owned by the fans and opposed to foreign investors to turn into companies.