At a glanceUnited announced its agreement with Juventus on August 27, 2021. That return and Ronaldo's departure in November 2022 are separate events, both documented by the club.
What United actually announced
Manchester United's August 27, 2021 statement confirmed an agreement with Juventus for Cristiano Ronaldo's transfer. It also explicitly said the deal remained subject to personal terms, a visa and a medical. An agreement announcement therefore described a major step in the process, rather than saying every administrative condition had already been completed.
For someone arriving through an old 'set to join' headline, the useful distinction is between the date of that announcement and the player's later career. The statement belongs to the 2021 transfer window. It cannot establish which club he represents today.
Source [1]Why it was a return
The same club announcement put his first United spell at 118 goals in 292 games. Those figures describe the earlier chapter, not his eventual combined totals across both spells. Keeping the period attached to a statistic prevents two different records from being mistaken for a contradiction.
There are three questions to separate when comparing reports: which club is announcing the move, which season the story concerns, and whether the quoted figures cover one spell or the whole career. A later article may correctly give different totals because its endpoint has changed.
Source [1]How the second spell ended
On November 22, 2022, United announced that Ronaldo would leave by mutual agreement with immediate effect. It thanked him for his contribution over two spells and recorded 145 goals in 346 appearances. That later statement establishes the end of the United chapter discussed here; it is not the same announcement as the 2021 return.
His subsequent Al Nassr signing is explained in a separate NewsCubby article. Reading the two accounts in order gives a clearer timeline than treating an old transfer headline as a current update.
Source [2]