From Lukaku to Eriksen: Italy has 'surrendered' to the Ronaldo effect
The Portuguese phenomenon has given the Italian top division more publicity and interest of foreign media and has also normalized the transfer of top players to Italy with his 100 million move from the Santiago Bernabeu.
It could be argued that the likes of Romelu Lukaku, Aaron Ramsey and others were heavily influenced by the presence of Cristiano Ronaldo in the league and another top player who is close to moving to the Italian Peninsula is Christian Eriksen, with his move to Inter Milan being a matter of days.
The "Ronaldo effect" was also admitted by the well-known Italian journalist Gianluca Di Marzio while on air on Sky Sports UK (via abola.pt), saying that the arrival of CR7 has had an overall positive effect and has helped attract players from other top leagues.
"Since the arrival of Ronaldo, Serie A has improved. Something has changed in the way it is now possible to sign players. Two, three or four years ago, the players thought about the Premier League, La Liga or the Bundesliga," he said.
"After Ronaldo, something changed, we started to be a good league again and the players want to come to Italy because the country is spectacular and the games are fantastic," Di Marzio added.