Despite rumours that they were interested in signing Cristiano Ronald, the Saudi Arabian team Al Nassr claims they had not spoken to the Portuguese star. But the Saudis have said that now that Ronaldo’s World Cup obligations are over, discussions might happen.
Last month, days after giving an angry interview to UK TV show Piers Morgan in which he criticised the club’s management by its new head coach, Erik Ten Hag, and its US-based owners the Glazer family, Ronaldo, 37, abruptly left Manchester United.
Since then, attention has been focused on the out-of-contract footballer’s future move, despite the fact that several of Europe’s best teams have backed away from making a bid for the seasoned forward.
One such location is Saudi Arabia, where Ronaldo might travel to become the highest-paid footballer in history thanks to the Gulf nation’s purportedly limitless cash reserves.
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Rudi Garcia, a Frenchman, is the manager of Al Nassr, one of the most successful teams in Saudi Premier League history. Ronaldo was once rumoured to have received a startling $244 million contract offer from Al Nassr.
Although it was previously believed that Ronaldo preferred to stay in European football, subsequent sources have suggested that he may have been persuaded by their offer’s overwhelming financial strength.
Musalli Al-Muammar, club president, is keeping his cards close to his chest regarding the star footballer’s future.
“Who is Ronaldo? I don’t know him,” he joked to reporters when quizzed recently.
“Ronaldo did not negotiate with us because he was busy with the World Cup. As far as I know, not only with us, but with other clubs too. We did not expect him to make a decision in the middle of the tournament,” he added, per SSC Sports.
“I wish Cristiano all the best in whatever choice he makes.”
Garcia, the team’s manager, also addressed the reports earlier this week, but he declined to elaborate because of the continuous media frenzy.
“I can’t say anything about Cristiano because otherwise it would immediately appear in the headlines: ‘Garcia: about Ronaldo’. What I see is that it has been a soap opera and it has been a very important promotion for Al Nassr,” said Garcia.
“Nothing special, but I have always thought that the great players are the easiest to manage because they are very intelligent, I verified this with Francesco Totti at Roma. At the moment, the goal with Al Nassr is simple: win titles.”
