Cristiano Ronaldo was signed to play with Al Nassr, as mentioned in the team social media last Friday. Ronaldo specifically made a 2 and a half year contract with the club after leaving Manchester United. Based on the report, he will be paid USD 1 million per week, significantly higher compared to his time at Manchester United before he became a free agent, which is at USD 605,000 per week.
“I am excited to experience a new football league in a different country. The vision of what Al-Nassr is doing and developing in Saudi Arabia both in terms of men’s and women’s football is very inspiring. We can see from Saudi Arabia’s recent performance at the World Cup that this is a country with big football ambitions and a lot of potential.”
Regarding his motivation to sign with the current club, the global superstar said, “I am fortunate that I have won everything I set out to win in European football and feel now that this is the right moment to share my experience in Asia. I am looking forward to joining my new teammates and together with them, help the club to achieve success”
Al Nassr itself is one of the teams that play in the country’s top football division, SPL (Saudi Professional League) that has 16 teams. Founded in 1955, Al-Nassr are currently the second-most successful Saudi team with the total title at 9, right behind Al-Hilal. A lot of achievement has been obtained by Al Nassr, some of them are their victory in the country’s King’s cup for six times, with their best performance in AFC Champions League– that they win six times–as the runners up in 1995. Also their player, Majed Abdullah is the league top scorer with 189 goals in total as the former striker.
In the present, Al-Nassr sitting at the peak of the league with 26 points from 11 matches, winning eight games and one time lost, right behind them are Al-Shahab team with a point difference. They need to win the league to be able to enter the 2023-2024 AFC group stage, which started in September.