Spain's popular sports newspaper Marca on Sunday listed three reasons why Real Madrid CF's striker Cristiano Ronaldo hinted at leaving the team after they had won the third consecutive trophy of the European Champion League on May 26 in Kiev.

CR7 has said multiple times that he was willing to renew his contract with Real Madrid in the past year but never received a clear answer from the club's management.

"We could not renew the contract every year," Real Madrid's PR director told reporters at the beginning of the 2017-18 La Liga Campaign.

After Real Madrid won the title at the FIFA Club World Cup in December, 2017, its President Florentino Perez said they will talk about it with CR7 after the campaign.

Marca believed that Real Madrid's attitude over contract renewal has made Ronaldo feel he was not respected.

Currently, FC Barcelona's Lionel Messi is receiving about 46.55 million US dollars (post-tax) every year from his club. Paris Saint-Germain's Neymar comes behind with still as much as around 43.06 million US dollars (post-tax). By contrast, Real Madrid pays CR7 only 27.46 million US dollars (post-tax).

Marca said that Ronaldo's agent Jorge Mendes negotiated with Florentino Perez in April about raising his client's yearly salary to 34.91 or 38.40 million US dollars (post-tax). However, the negotiation went nowhere and it appears as if there was barely any communication.

Marca thought that Ronaldo did not really want Real Madrid to offer a higher salary than Neymar or Messi, he simply want to stay at the same class with the other two.

Marca believed that Ronaldo, who won four European Champion League titles in the past five years, was trying to show everybody, especially Real Madrid that he must be on an equal footing with Messi and Neymar.

Rumors about Neymar joining Real Madrid has been increasingly louder for months. He is younger and almost for sure will get a pay rise if he arrives. CR7 has been competing with Messi over who is the today's greatest football player on earth for years and finally being seen as equal in the past two years. Thus, he would never accept being replaced as the club's No.1 player by a new young man who has not proved himself in any major event.

In CR7's current contract, a club can have him immediately after they pay Real Madrid about 1.163 billion US dollars. Though there are several clubs affording it, considering Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) is making great efforts to implement the Financial Fair Play, no manager is willing to take such a huge risk.

Second option is to negotiate transfer. However, that means either Real Madrid tags a price or another club offers a price for Ronaldo. So far there has been no such news. Considering his value on the transfer market, even if anyone wants to try, a terrifying price awaits.

Cristiano Ronaldo has won two La Liga champions, two Copa del Rey titles, two Supercopa de España trophies, four European Champion League titles, two UEFA Super Cup champions and three FIFA Club World Cup titles since he joined the club in 2009. Marca said that such an outstanding player deserves an equal footing with Messi and Neymar.