An Italian court on Monday ordered Serie A club Juventus to pay Portuguese striker Cristiano Ronaldo around 9.7 million euros ($16 million) in unpaid wages for the 2020-21 season.

After hearing Ronaldo’s appeal, the arbitration tribunal ruled that Juventus should “pay 9,774,166.66 euros (approximately 1.6758 billion yen) plus interest and administrative costs.”

The amount represents the difference between the salary Ronaldo actually received and the salary he should have received after taxes and other deductions.

Ronaldo, who spent three seasons with Juventus from 2018, had sought 19.5 million euros (about 3.2 billion yen) but the court reduced the amount by about 50 percent.

Juventus declined to comment when contacted by AFP but said they would issue a statement “shortly”. (c)AFP