Ronaldo joined Al Nassr, closing the period of top football in Europe.
Club football restarts after more than a month making way for the 2022 World Cup. Currently, Europe is considered the dominant continent in the football village. This place gives wings to many players to come out into the light and claim their name.
In contrast, European players of real value rarely jump out of the old continent in pursuit of fame and money in other continents. However, Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the greatest players in history, has just headed to the Middle East to prolong his playing career.
In the past time, the Portuguese superstar tried to join a top destination but failed.
Ronaldo’s sad ending
Ronaldo was forced to leave Manchester United, a big English club. Old Trafford was once a dream of a young man when his talent was budding. He made a name for himself here with his mesmerizing performances.
Ronaldo left MU after interview with Piers Morgan.
In the summer of 2021, Ronaldo returned to MU with many expectations. At first, everything went pretty well. He ended the 2021/22 season as the team’s top scorer. However, the arrival of interim coach Ralf Rangnick and then Erik ten Hag put Ronaldo in a difficult situation.
The importance of the 37-year-old striker gradually decreased. Ronaldo often plays poorly when given opportunities. Understandably, coach Ten Hag had to let him sit on the bench. Ronaldo reacted in a negative way. He conducted a noisy interview with journalist Piers Morgan. As a result, “Red Devils” were forced to terminate the contract before the period of 7 months.
It is said that the above interview gives the impression that Ronaldo is being treated unfairly and disrespected. So he got up. Ronaldo also exposed the weak facilities of MU, simply not having changed since he left Old Trafford more than 10 years ago.
In fact, Ronaldo never accepted to sit on the bench or stand behind anyone. He plans to leave MU in search of a better destination. Ronaldo believes that he is still valuable and capable of playing at the top level. But an unsuccessful World Cup made Ronaldo realize that the tipping point in his career had come.
Be fairer to Ronaldo
In 2015, CR7 announced that he wanted to continue playing football at a high level and contribute to the national team until he retired when conducting an interview with journalist Jonathan Ross. “In my mind, I want to finish my career in a high-class league. It should be a strong team,” the 37-year-old striker said at the peak of his career.
The Middle East could be the last stop in Ronaldo’s career.
Piers Morgan himself admitted: “Ronaldo thinks that if he plays well in the World Cup, he will get what he wants. That is to join a team that participates in the Champions League to build more of his massive legacy. Money. “It’s not a problem for Ronaldo at the moment. What’s important for him is to play at the highest level, to break more records and win trophies.”
However, when his legs were tired and his strength was exhausted, Ronaldo understood that staying in Europe was out of reach. Ronaldo was present at the Valdebebas center for training just 4 days after Portugal were eliminated in the quarterfinals of the 2022 World Cup. According to Marca, Ronaldo maintained his fitness in Madrid and was ready to wait for the call from “Los Blancos”. . However, that never happened.
That’s when CR7 realized joining a top-class European team became impractical after being rejected by Real. Therefore, the former MU striker is more open to the offer from Al Nassr.
Al Arabiya quoted sources from inside Al Nassr, saying Ronaldo signed a 2.5-year contract with the Saudi Arabian team. At the new club, the superstar born in 1985 received a salary of about 65 million euros per season (equivalent to 75 million USD), a record in the history of world football. Ronaldo’s total annual income can be up to 200 million euros thanks to sponsorship contracts and brand representation for Al Nassr or Saudi Arabian football.
Because of this move, people began to criticize Ronaldo. “Ronaldo’s career is officially over” is a familiar saying appearing all over social networking sites.
However, Ronaldo’s legacy still stands over time. With the landing is said to be the last in his career, Ronaldo has a rare time to lower his ego to go to the Middle East to play football.
More importantly, Saudi Arabia made him feel respected, wanted and brought him a lot of money. In the Al Nassr shirt, Ronaldo is no different from the king.
Ronaldo has the will of a champion. He left MU to continue his dream of conquering new milestones. But when he realized his body could no longer allow it, Ronaldo stepped back and chose a more suitable stop before stopping.
In the last years of his career, “Football King” Pele went to the US to play football and was still welcomed. All comparisons are lame but Ronaldo deserves such respect after all these years of dedication to top football.
Xiaofeng | 17:55 January 2, 2023
