Cristiano Ronaldo leaves Real Madrid for Italian club Juventus.

SOCCER Ronaldo to Juventus

Cristiano Ronaldo is leaving Real Madrid to join Italian club Juventus in a move expected to benefit the Portugal forward’s tax return. Juventus said Tuesday it paid $131.5 million for Ronaldo, who signed a four-year deal with the Serie A champions.

The move brings an end to a hugely successful nine-year spell in Spain, and takes him further away from a tax fraud case that may end up costing the Portugal forward more than $20 million in fines. Ronaldo joined Real Madrid in 2009 from Manchester United and was the Spanish club’s alltime leading scorer with 451 goals in 438 matches. He helped the club win four Champions League titles — beating Juventus in the final in 2017 — and also won the league and cup twice each. He has scored a record 120 Champions League goals, 105 of them since moving to Madrid — 12 more than Juventus managed in that same period. Ronaldo led Portugal to its first major title at the European Championship two years ago in France. He helped the Portuguese team reach the semifinals in his first World Cup in 2006. Portugal was eliminated by Uruguay in the round of 16 of this year’s tournament in Russia. Ronaldo scored four goals to take his tally to 85 for his country and break Ferenc Puskas’ record as Europe’s alltime leading international scorer.

GOLF

PGA season revamped

The PGA Tour has eliminated a FedEx Cup playoff event as part of a revamped, tighter schedule that will allow its season to end a week before the football season begins in the United States. Most of the changes to the 2018-2019 schedule released Tuesday already had been announced. The final piece was where to put two new tournaments between the U.S. Open and British Open. Detroit-based Quicken Loans is calling its event the Rocket Mortgage Classic on June 27-30. It will be followed by the 3M Open in Minnesota and the John Deere Classic. The tour will feature 46 events over 41 weeks, down from 48 tournaments this year. The addition of new tournaments in Detroit and Minnesota is offset by eliminating the FedEx Cup playoff event in Boston, the Quicken Loans National that had been run by the Tiger Woods Foundation in the Washington, D.C. area, and a year off for the Houston Open and Greenbrier. Houston and Greenbrier are to return to the fall portion of the schedule in 2019. The TPC Boston, meanwhile, will rotate with a New York-area course every other year for the opening FedEx Cup playoff event. Behind the tighter schedule was a desire for the tour to complete its season at the Tour Championship before the start of college football and the NFL. Key to the changes was the PGA Championship moving from August to May, and The Players Championship returning to March. The wraparound season starts Oct. 4-7 with the Safeway Open in Napa, Calif., one week after the Ryder Cup in France.

FOOTBALL McCoy denies allegations

Police acknowledged Tuesday that a woman was assaulted during a home invasion at a suburban Atlanta house owned by NFL star LeSean McCoy, hours after graphic posts on social media accused the Buffalo Bills running back of bloodying his former girlfriend. One female was treated and released from the hospital, while another sustained a minor injury during a targeted invasion early Tuesday, Milton, Ga., police said in a release responding to requests by The Associated Press. McCoy denied allegations posted on social media earlier in the day accusing him of hurting his former girlfriend. McCoy was responding to an Instagram post from a person who said she is friends with the injured woman. The post showed a graphic photo of the former girlfriend and accused McCoy of physically abusing her, his son and his dog, as well as injecting steroids. The woman who posted the accusations and the ex-girlfriend have not responded to messages left by the AP, though both Instagram accounts showed pictures of the women together in London during a music festival, with comments on each other’s posts. The AP generally does not identify people who may have been victims of abuse. The Bills issued a statement saying they have been in contact with McCoy and the NFL and will continue gathering information. NFL spokesman Brian McCarthy said the league is reviewing the matter.

HORSE RACING Justify evaluated

Justify, the undefeated Triple Crown-winning 3-year-old trained by Bob Baffert, is being evaluated for a condition that could threaten plans for his continued racing career later this summer. “Justify had some filling in his left front ankle a week ago, which subsided in a couple days,” Baffert said in a news release Tuesday afternoon. “I trained him last week and the filling came back. We want to get him checked out.” Occasional swelling in joints is not uncommon and usually not a cause for concern, but the racing public has been curious about plans for Justify since he won the Belmont Stakes on June 9, so Tuesday’s announcement provided some explanation for the patience with a future schedule for the Triple Crown winner. Justify returned to Baffert’s base at Santa Anita Park in California last month and had been in full training until he was taken off the track at the end of last week. He had been pointed to a possible run in the Haskell Invitational Stakes at Monmouth Park in New Jersey on July 29, but those plans appear to be on hold. His connections have previously indicated a desire to keep racing the Kentucky Derby winner, perhaps at least through a possible return to Churchill Downs this November for the Breeders’ Cup Classic. Justify has won all six of his starts and has compiled career earnings of $3,798,000. He is owned by China Horse Club, Head of Plains Partners, Starlight Racing and WinStar Farm. Justify’s breeding rights were reportedly sold to Coolmore Stud before the Preakness Stakes, but WinStar later said no deal had been finalized. Justify was the first horse since 1882 to win the Kentucky Derby without having raced at age 2. He went on to become the 13th Triple Crown winner of all time.

HOCKEY Lightning sign Kucherov

The Tampa Bay Lightning signed forward Nikita Kucherov to an eight-year contract extension worth an average of $9.5 million in salary and annual bonuses. The team announced the deal Tuesday. Kucherov, 25, would have been a restricted free agent next summer with one year left on a deal that will pay him nearly $4.8 million for the 2018-2019 season. Now he is set to stay with the Lightning through the 2026-2027 season as the team’s highest-paid player once the extension kicks in after next year. The two-time AllStar had 39 goals and 100 points with a plus-15 rating last season. He was third in the NHL in points, sixth in assists and tied for ninth in goals. He averaged 19:49 in ice time to lead all forwards for the Lightning, who lost in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Finals to Washington.

Ronaldo

McCoy