Cristiano Ronaldo and Georgina ‘hire £5k-a-month butler and chef’ as they recruit staff for £18m Portuguese mansion

CRISTIANO RONALDO and his partner have reportedly hired staff for the new £18million mansion they are having built on the Portuguese Riviera.

The wantaway Manchester United forward and Georgina Rodriguez are already said to have picked four employees including a £4,800-a-month butler and a chef according to respected Portuguese daily Correio da Manha.

News of Cristiano’s recruiting at the exclusive 12,000 square foot property due to be completed early next year is bound to fuel speculation his future could lie with boyhood club Sporting.

Speaking exclusively to The Sun's Piers Morgan, the 37-year-old accused Man United of betraying him - while admitting he doesn't respect manager Erik ten Hag.

Following Ronaldo's bombshell interview, Sporting manager Ruben Amorim said: “Everyone at Sporting likes him and therefore there’s not a lot to say about this.

“He is going to decide his own future.”

Cristiano has been linked to a return to the Lisbon club, which his doting mum Dolores Aveiro is a diehard fan of, since the summer -when it emerged he was looking to leave Old Trafford before the end of his current two-year contract and play Champions League football.

Unconfirmed reports earlier this year, published in both Portugal and the UK, claimed Ronaldo had registered his children at a school in Lisbon.

The property he is having built in Quinta da Marinha, half an hour from Lisbon Airport and ten minutes from the centre of the coastal town of Cascais which forms part of the so-called Portuguese Riviera, is set to have a garage big enough to house 30 supercars.

It is also expected to boast a cinema, games room, spa and vast bedroom suites with stunning ocean views as well as indoor and outdoor swimming pools.

It will add to an already-extensive property portfolio in his home country which includes a seven-storey apartment block overlooking the Atlantic Ocean in Madeiran capital Funchal where his mum and older brother Hugo live, and two Lisbon apartments.

One, a £6.5m penthouse, was at the centre of a planning row last year over a controversial gazebo.