The Portuguese international Cristiano Ronaldowithout a club since the termination of his contract with Manchester United at the end of November, signed for two and a half years, until June 2025, with Al Nassr, the Saudi club announced on Friday.
“I can’t wait to discover a new football championship in a different country,” said Cristiano Ronaldo, quoted on his new club’s Twitter account and posing with his new yellow and blue shirt, decorated with his usual number 7.
“The vision of Al Nassr is very inspiring and I am happy to join my teammates so that together we can help the team achieve more success,” said the Portuguese star.
The salary that Cristiano Ronaldo will have is estimated at around 200 million euros (214 million dollars) and this signing now directs the spotlight towards the Saudi league, a championship unknown to the general public.
“History is being written. This signing will not only inspire our club to achieve even more success, but it will inspire our championship, our country and future generations of boys and girls to give their best.” themselves,” Al Nassr said.
Cristiano Ronaldo, 37, has a spectacular track record, with five Ballon d’Ors, five titles in the European Champions League (2008, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018), Italian champion titles with Juventus (2019, 2020, from Spain with Real Madrid (2012, 2017) and from England with Manchester United (2007, 2008, 2009).
He is also the top scorer in the Champions League and in the history of the Portuguese team, with which he won the Euro Cup in 2016.
However, Cristiano Ronaldo, the most followed personality on the Instagram social network, is coming off a few difficult months, after his stormy departure from Manchester United, the club where he had made himself known among the elite between 2003 and 2009, and when who had returned in 2021 after passing through Real Madrid (2009-2018) and Juventus (2018-2021).
Since the middle of this year, Cristiano Ronaldo, trained at Sporting Lisbon in his country, wanted to leave Manchester United and the arrival of the Dutch coach Erik Ten Hag, who limited his playing time, made the situation worse.
In an interview in November, just before the World Cup, he criticized past and present coaches, managers and former teammates, without being self-critical. Shortly after, Manchester United announced the termination of his contract “by common consent”.
During the last World Cup, his playing time was limited and Portugal was eliminated in the quarterfinals of Qatar 2022 by Morocco.
Al Nassr, trained since July by the French Rudi García, won nine Saudi Arabian champion titles, the last of them in 2019.
