Cristiano Ronaldo joins Al Nassr

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

Cristiano Ronaldo travels to the Gulf after spending a year on Portugal’s bench and having his Manchester United contract cancelled.

The club announced that Ronaldo’s million-dollar contract will start for Al Nassr in Saudi Arabia on Friday.

He has a contract that lasts until June 2025.

The former Manchester United, Real Madrid, and Juventus player said “I’m really excited to find a new football league in a different country,” said

Cristiano Ronaldo was spot wearing an Al Nassr shirt with his number 7 written on the back in blue and yellow.

He further said that “Al Nassr is an inspiring organization and I’m excited to join the team so that together, we can unleash the power of a truly incredible company”.

Al Nassr, a Saudi Arabian football club, won nine league titles in total, whereas the last they won was in 2019.

“This agreement represents more than history in the making. This is a moment that will have a lasting impact not just on our team, but on the whole league, our nation and future generations. It will inspire boys and girls to be their very best selves.”

History in the making. This is a signing that will not only inspire our club to achieve even greater success but inspire our league, our nation and future generations, boys and girls to be the best version of themselves. Welcome @Cristiano to your new home @AlNassrFC pic.twitter.com/oan7nu8NWC

— AlNassr FC (@AlNassrFC_EN) December 30, 2022

Ronaldo left Manchester United after cut to the bench for Portugal. He then joined PSG and joined the Qatar Stars League in 2019.

While Ronaldo was in Russia with his country, United terminated his contract.

Despite an injury absence, Ronaldo managed to score in four different competitions that year and became the first player to achieve this. This included his penalty goal against Ghana which qualified them for the World Cup.

There was some speculation as to why he wasn’t starting in Portugal’s last-16 clash with Switzerland, but he always rises to the occasion when called upon.

When Portugal defeat by Morocco, he named to the bench for the quarter-finals. Sadly, he ended up in tears at the end of the tournament.

For a long time, Cristiano Ronaldo was one of the top-paid football players.

He has since moved from Juventus (supposedly for a €31M salary) to AC Milan, which is being investigated for shady practices in its accounting pertaining to player salaries/transfers.

He accepted a significant wage reduction to rejoin United, with reports estimating his annual compensation to be between 15 and 28 million euros.

Ronaldo has been link to Champions League challengers such as Chelsea and Bayern Munich following his fractured relationship with United.

After completing his spell with Manchester United, he moved on to join Sporting Lisbon. Despite the rumours of a transfer to the MLS, nothing actually materialised.

Even though United upset by his diminishing contributions, they realize he growing more and more unpopular among their customer base. At the end of the day, they concluded that they no longer needed him in order to retain customer loyalty.