The stormy last months of the career of Cristiano Ronaldo seem to have an oasis in Saudi Arabia, where he arrived this week to join the al nassr in the most expensive contract in the history of world football, with an estimated salary of 200 million euros and a relationship for the next five years.
Cristiano’s talent is not the same as his glory years and, about to turn 38, it is obvious that he is no longer the same. But the Arabs trust him not only to take advantage of the last years of his career, but also to promote a football and a league that wants to think big, as their neighbors in Qatar already did, who less than a month ago experienced the best final of the World Cup history.
“In Europe my work is over, I have won everything, I have played for the most important clubs,” Ronaldo said before a bright and festive presentation at the Al Nassr stadium, where the club’s fans sold out the 25,000 seats available. “I have come here to win, to play, to enjoy, to be part of the success of this country and the culture of this country,” he added.
The media impact was immediate, just as the world of football said goodbye to one of the most important figures in history, King ‘Pelé’. Al Nassr’s Instagram account went from having 823,000 followers before the announcement of CR7’s hiring to 10.7 million (until this Saturday) after shaking up the international market.
The Al Nassr shirt, made by the firm Duneus, little known in Latin America, was marketed for 80 dollars (about 400,000 pesos, 150,000 more, for example, than the cost of the fan version of the Colombian National Team shirt). Now, whoever wants to have the name and number of the Portuguese on their back must pay an additional $100.
But the issue goes beyond social networks and t-shirts. In Arabia they hope that the arrival of Cristiano will put the league in that country in the world’s sights. “Wherever he goes, he will attract attention and although only 10% of his followers are interested in his new club, the Saudi League will become one of the most followed in the world,” published the Gulf News, from the United Arab Emirates, for analyze the phenomenon. He added, “Asia has never seen anything like this.”
Japan and Qatar did similar experiments
There were precedents on that continent. Like when Japan began to strengthen its league: Sumitomo Kinzoku (now the Kashima Antlers) took the Brazilian in 1991 Zico, the great figure of his country’s national team in the 80s and described at the time as the successor to Pelé. At that time, Zico was already 38 years old, the age that Cristiano Ronaldo is about to turn. Two years later the current J-League was born. Or like when Qatar, in its desire to promote its football, also sought to bring figures and hired in 2015 Xavi Hernandez, still in full competition with Barcelona, at 35 years of age. He arrived at Al Sadd, played for four years and then became the team’s coach, before returning to the Blaugrana awnings, now as a coach.
However, none of those signings had the impact and implications of the arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo. The Arab league has invested more in foreign coaches than in players. In fact, there is not a single Saudi coach in the first division. There they lead, for example, the Argentine Ramón Díaz, the Chilean José Luis Sierra, the Portuguese Nuno Espirito Santo and the Spanish Rudi García (DT of Al Nassr), and at the time, the Colombian also passed through that league
Al Nassr is going for more, and above all, knowing that they have not won the local league since 2019 and that Al Hilal, one of their great rivals, is the current champion of the Asian Champions League. He had already taken Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina from Napoli at the beginning of the season, and now he would look for other names to make up the group of the ‘new galactics’. They already have in their sights the Frenchman N’Golo Kanté, world champion with France in 2018 and about to be released from Chelsea, and the Croatian Luka Modric, who also ends his contract with Real Madrid in June.
But the issue, beyond the particular objectives of Al Nassr, seems to be part of a global strategy by Saudi Arabia, which is already investing heavily in other sports: they created LIV Golf, a circuit managed by Greg Norman and which they reached figures like Dustin Johnson, Cameron Smoth, Brooks Koepka and Joaquín Niemann, with multimillion-dollar prizes. And since 2021 it has received one of the valid ones of Formula 1, in an urban circuit in Jeddah, designed by the German Herman Tilke, brain, in addition, of other tracks in the category, such as those of Sepang (Malaysia), Shanghai (China). and Sochi (Russia). All this, to leave behind the criticism of the Saudi regime on the subject of human rights. Now, Cristiano Ronaldo seems to be one of his strongest bets.
Jose Orlando Ascencio
sports deputy editor
@josasc
With information from AFP
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