Cristiano Ronaldo is available on a free transfer after agreeing a contract termination with Manchester United and Al Nassr are the first club interested in him.
Ronaldo and Manchester United parted ways after the 37-year-old slammed the club and Erik ten Hag, who had benched him frequently this season, in a controversial interview with Piers Morgan.
90 mins has learned that Al Nassr has now offered him a contract that would make him the highest paid footballer of all time. the mark even goes one step further and reports that the change is nearing completion.
So who is Al Nassr, Ronaldo’s potential next club?
As ManUtd showed when he and Ten Hag clashed, a club’s manager is extremely important to Ronaldo’s success there or not.
Al Nassr’s coach is Rudi Garcia. The Frenchman took over in June this year, replacing Pedro Emanuel.
Garcia has not had a particularly successful playing career but has made a name for himself as a coach, being in charge of Lille, AS Roma, Marseille and Lyon, among others.
His biggest achievement was winning Ligue 1 in 2011 with Lille. He had some relatively successful spells after that but found himself without a job after a disappointing 2020/21 campaign with Lyon.
A year later he was signed by Al Nassr, where he made a good start in Saudi Arabia with six wins in the first eight games.
Ronaldo would be by far the biggest name at the club but the club already have some high profile players in their squad.
Cameroonian striker Vincent Aboubakar joined Al Nassr in the summer of 2021 and has since done well with ten goals in 30 games, while David Ospina and Luiz Gustavo were signed this year.
However, the club’s best player is Brazilian striker Talisca, who used to play for Benfica. Last season he scored 20 goals in 28 league games, this season he has scored five in six games.
Al Nassr is one of the richest clubs in the world as evidenced by the fact that they have the money that makes Ronaldo the highest paid player of all time.
Saudi Prince Abdul Rahman bin Saud Al Saud took over the helm of the club in 1960 and oversaw the development from an amateur side to one of the country’s biggest clubs by funding its promotion.
He passed away in 2004 but the club has continued to receive financial backing from the Saudi royal family ever since, meaning money is no object.
Al Nassr is one of Saudi Arabia’s most successful clubs, having won the country’s top flight nine times – only Al-Hilal has won it more.
The club is also successful in cup competitions: it has won the King’s Cup six times, the Crown Prince’s Cup three times, the National Super Cup twice, the Asian Super Cup once and the Asian Cup Winners’ Cup once.
However, their greatest prize, the Asian Champions League, has proved illusory: they reached the final once in 1995 but never won the trophy.
The side haven’t won a league title in two seasons, instead finishing second and sixth since the 2019 triumph but winning the 2020 King’s Cup and Saudi Super Cup.
