/file/attachments/orphans/IMG_9103_429753.jpeg)
Cristiano Ronaldo is all about control, as the Saudis now know
One has to admire the bloody-mindedness of the Portugal star who rarely misses games and at 41 is still pursuing history
Disappointed with your club’s January transfer window business? Just wait until you hear about Cristiano Ronaldo, a man paid £175m a year and still given to wondering indignantly where all his club’s money might have gone.
Ronaldo was absent from the Al-Nassr team for a second straight game on Friday night, a late-goals 2-0 win over Saudi Pro-League reigning champions Al-Ittihad. For a 41-year-old who rarely misses a game, that is significant. As Telegraph Sport has reported, Ronaldo is angry about Al-Nassr’s low-key January trading in a month that their chief rivals for the title, Al-Hilal, signed Karim Benzema from Al-Ittihad.
The Transfermarkt website estimates Al-Nassr have spent €414m on fees alone since Ronaldo joined in 2023 and €100m of that was last summer. Such football nobodies as Kingsley Coman and João Félix joined a squad that also includes Sadio Mané and Marcelo Brozovic. Ronaldo renewed his contract in the summer, although his accompanying interview made it quite clear that he wanted to win the league this time.
In many respects, one has to admire the bloody-mindedness. For most of the world’s superannuated football stars, and some younger ones too, the prospect of Saudi is treated chiefly like a very attractive pension scheme. Even the notion of “going to Saudi” in the European mindset is enough to describe the career choice. The selection of the club in question is just an incidental detail, rather than the heart of the matter.
But for Ronaldo, who still curates his career with the fervour of a 10-year-old doing his fantasy football transfers, the medals matter. So too the pursuit of 1,000 career goals. In some respects, it feels a bit much for a 41-year-old man. In others it seems exactly in keeping with the drive that has propelled a boy from the Madeira Islands to become one of the most famous footballers in the history of the game. Not to mention a brand-licensing business worth hundreds of millions of Euros.
If Saudi wanted the world to take their domestic football competition as seriously as others do the European leagues, then they have finally got their wish. With Ronaldo, that can be a double-edged sword as other recent employers have found. Three decades in one of football’s most exalted fame bubbles has not exactly honed his capacity to see it from someone else’s perspective.
One was reminded of that this week watching Steve Coogan and Éanna Hardwicke go at it as Mick McCarthy and Roy Keane in the movie Saipan. Part of one wished Keane would just let it drop, join the lads on the banana boat and be one of the stars at the 2002 World Cup – a status that his talent deserved. Then there was another part that recognised that his obsessiveness had got him this far. He could not just turn it off.
One source close to the Saudi situation suggested this week that Benzema looked at his Al-Ittihad deal and believed he could earn a bit more. Having moved to Al-Hilal he texted Ronaldo, a friend from his Real Madrid days, and observed jokingly that not only had he got a pay-rise but he was also going to win the title again. One would like to think he also added a cursory “lol” at the end although none can say for sure. But safe to say it has prompted quite a dark night of the soul for Ronaldo.
He has also hinted that this summer’s World Cup finals will be his international swansong. Clearly, he still chips in with the occasional goal for Portugal, and 226 caps is some service, but everyone knows it has all gone on far too long to be sensible. Even so, no one, least of all Roberto Martínez, seems to have the authority to tell Ronaldo it is over. Those remaining 39 goals are not going to score themselves, and Ronaldo clearly sees every game is a chance to edge closer.
One assumes that Al-Nassr – just a point behind leaders Al-Hilal – will smooth things over with Ronaldo and he will return to the fold, although there are no guarantees. The beauty of being Ronaldo is that, broadly speaking, you can do what you want. There is said to be a €50m release fee but one assumes that it would be waived to avoid a Ronaldo meltdown. A free transfer would be more preferable for Saudi than Ronaldo pitching up at Piers Morgan’s home studio with another axe to grind.
If it really is just about notching those final 39 goals, it matters not where Ronaldo scores them. One assumes that could be in Major League Soccer in a country where his friendship with US President Donald Trump makes Ronaldo a welcome overseas worker. Although there is scope for something much more interesting than lashing in No 1,000 against a football club that has been playing for fewer years than Ronaldo.
Ronaldo’s career has always been built around the biggest clubs, the most lucrative salaries, the most goals, the most mind-boggling commercial deals, the most sculpted abs. How about a sign-off in a less-exalted lower league? There are certain Championship clubs for whom the plot twist potential of signing Ronaldo would at least have to be examined. The scene where they explain to him the limitations of the EFL’s profit and sustainability regulations would be the kind of appointment-to-view content any streamer worth their salt would green-light.
The man himself has been clear that he sees himself post-playing as a club owner rather than a manager – an ambition entirely in keeping with what appears to be a life built around control. In an era when many of the most famous players, former and current, now own stakes in clubs, perhaps that too might be an option for him now. He could try his hand at acquiring and running a club with himself as the first signing.
It would at least make the contractual negotiations simple – and the manager, God help him, would be in no doubt as to the first name on the team-sheet.
[Source: Daily Telegraph]
