Ronaldo joined the powerful foreign army at Al Nassr.
Joining Al Nassr with a 2.5-year contract, CR7 will side with the striker duo who have played for many years in Portugal, Talisca and Vincent Aboubakar. Talisca played for Benfica between 2014 and 2018, scoring 12 goals in 53 appearances. Meanwhile, Aboubakar was Porto’s top scorer for 6 years (2014-2020), scoring 36 goals in 83 games.
In the 2022/23 season, Talisca is the top scorer in the Saudi Pro League with 9 goals in 8 matches, while Aboubakar has 3 goals.
In addition to the aforementioned duo, Al Nassr also has a large foreign army. Among them is Luiz Gustavo, a midfielder who won the Champions League and Bundesliga with Bayern Munich in the 2012/13 season. Besides that are Pity Martinez, David Ospina, Ghislain Konan and Alvaro Gonzalez.
Ospina is a Colombia international and has stints for Arsenal and Napoli, while Gonzalez had a falling out with Neymar during his Ligue 1 stint for Marseille.
The 5 Saudi Arabian players attending the 2022 World Cup will join the Al Nassr squad in the 2022/23 season, including 3 defenders Sultan Al-Ghannam, Abdulelah Al-Amri and Abdullah Madu and 2 midfielders Sami Al-Najei and Ayman Yahya.
On the coaching bench of Al Nassr is Rudi Garcia, a strategist who has led Lille (2008-2013), AS Roma (2013-2016), Marseille (2016-2019) and Lyon (2019-2021). The 58-year-old coach is Gustavo’s former teacher in Marseille.
On the morning of December 31 (Hanoi time), Al Nassr launched the Ronaldo contract. 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. However, 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.
Duy Luan | 11:31 December 2022
