Portuguese international Cristiano Ronaldo, without a club since the termination of his contract with Manchester United at the end of November, has signed up for 2 and a half years, until June 2025, with Al-Nassr.
The Saudi club confirmed it on Friday evening.
“I can’t wait to discover a new football championship in a different country,” said Ronaldo, 37, quoted on his new club’s Twitter account and posing with his new jersey, yellow and blue, emblazoned with his usual number 7 .
Aged 37, Ronaldo has one of the finest records in world football with five Ballons d’Or, five Champions League titles (2008, 2014, 2016, 2017, 2018), league titles in Italy ( 2019, 2020) with Juventus Turin, in Spain (2012, 2017) with Real Madrid and in England (2007, 2008, 2009) with Manchester United.
He is also the top scorer in the Champions League and in the history of the Portuguese selection, with whom he won Euro-2016.
But Ronaldo, the most followed personality on the social network Instagram, remains on a disappointing experience at Manchester United, the club where he revealed himself on the international scene between 2003 and 2009 and where he returned in August 2021 after his visits to Real Madrid (2009-18) and Juventus (2018-21).
Since last summer, Ronaldo had been looking to leave Manchester United and the arrival of Erik ten Hag on the bench, which limited his playing time, did not help matters.
No self-criticism
In a bitter interview in November, just before the World Cup, he attacked his coaches, past and present, his leaders and his former teammates, without an ounce of self-criticism on his own shortcomings.
In the process, Manchester United announced the termination of his contract ‘by mutual agreement’.
During the last World Cup, his playing time was limited and Portugal was eliminated in the quarter-finals.
Al-Nassr, trained since July by Frenchman Rudi Garcia, has won nine Saudi Arabian league titles, the last in 2019.
/ATS