What's the story?
Serie A club Juventus, who were shocked by underdogs Ajax in their UEFA Champions League quarter-final fixture yesterday, faced the repercussion of their unlikely elimination in the stock market, as they saw their shares plunge by a fifth early in the day, CNBC reports.
Though, the stock has now slightly recovered and is trading at €1.39 at the time of writing this article, a 17.63% decline from the €1.69 that it had begun the day with.
On the other hand, Ajax saw their stock value jump by 8.45 % in the same time-period.
In case you didn't know...
Juventus shares had almost doubled after they announced the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo last summer, as the investors bet the four-time Champions League winner could help the Bianconeri finally claim the title of European champions this campaign, having lost their previous five finals.
Though the Italian club paid an eyebrow-raising sum of €100 million for the former Real Madrid man, it should be noted here that around 520,000 shirts were sold in just 24 hours after Ronaldo's arrival at the Allianz Stadium, according to reports that brought in a whopping €55.21 million in sales.
This will be the first time in nine years that the five-time Ballon d'Or winner will not be participating in the semi-finals of the competition.
The heart of the matter...
Juventus are not having a great week and headed into this crucial second leg fixture having missed the chance to clinch an eighth consecutive Serie A title in record time on Saturday after a surprise 2-1 defeat at SPAL.
Ronaldo, who secured an important away goal, after his brilliant header in Amsterdam last week, delivered yet again in the knockout stages of the competition, firing home the opener in the 28th minute to hand the hosts the lead.
But his individual efforts were undone by goals from Donny van de Beek and Matthijs de Ligt, as the match finished 1-2 (2-3 on aggregate) in favour of the young Dutch side. This shocking results upset the investors so much so that in the early hours at Milan trading, Juve's stock lost nearly a fifth of it's value.
What's next?
Ronaldo is still in contention for a third league title in a fourth country as The Old Lady only need one point to seal their Serie A title now. They will host Fiorentina this Saturday.
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