This thread bumping up is the only time I remember Ronaldo is still playing for Al Nasr. 
Cristiano Ronaldo - Much Ado About Al Nassr
- Thread starter Bastian
- Start date
I’m glad he’s happy in Saudi Arabia. His personality needs it, they all laud him like a god so if nothing else, his head may be in a better place.
Aa long as he stays clear of chop chop square im sure his head will be fine.
I don't know why everyone keeps making fun of Saudi League. It's one of the richest leagues in the world. Everyone keeps comparing leagues over the world subjectively. The only objective measure is money. More money = better players = better product.
The list of the 20/21 season with wage bills.
The list of the 20/21 season with wage bills.
I think being lauded like a god is exactly what Ronaldo doesn’t need.
from anyone on the outside. But he’s too far gone
He's become Colonel Kurtz.
If that’s the only objective measure then I’m going to stick to subjective ones.
The thing is I doubt it's a great league, but is it worse than the Chinese league was when a few players started going there? And none of them were scoring 8 goals in 5 games like a 38 year old Ronaldo has done here. He's clearly still up to the task of playing for a European side, but not one where he has to play multiple times a week
The difference is that when formerly top players went to shite leagues for a payday, they treated it similarly to Paul Scholes playing 5 a side in a local AstroTurf league after he retired. Basically a bit of a laugh and didn't take it seriously.
Ronaldo on the other hand will continue to train hard because his vanity will never allow him to fall out of physical shape (shirtless pics on Instagram are his raison d'etre) while he also knows that goals at this level technically count toward his overall professional goals scored total which he is 100% motivated by.
Well I guess thats one way to look at it, the other is that he scored 18 goals in the Premier league last season, scored 2 hat tricks in 3 weeks right before his newborn son died, then his head wasn't ever right again at United. For me that's more likely than he totally forgot how to play football in the space of 4 months, and it just so happened to coincide with his child's death. I don't think he'll ever be the star man for a European side again, but he could still do a job, he's far too good for this league
To be fair why would these goals count? People suddenly starred talking about goals in top 5 leagues when Messi joined PSG.
If the main argument is he is going to try very hard for his new team then fair play to Ronaldo
We should also take into consideration how weak the Chinese national team is compared to the Saudis + all the leftovers who are not even good enough for the national side the league is filled with...
The only objective measure of quality is…money? Where’s the joke?
I didnt know Saudi Arabia played football untill the wc.
Ronaldo lasted way longer than the usual, compare him to his generational peers.
Only Modric and Benzema are following the same route, the rest are already retired or playing in a retirement league as well as Ronaldo.
We don't even know where Messi will be playing when he is 37-38 years old.
Ibrahimovic, Ribery, David Silva, Thiago Silva, Joaquin, Hasebe, Dani Alves are/were all playing for teams in top 5 leagues at the same age from the top of my mind, some of them even in EL/CL. Cristiano's legacy is great enough, to need to rewrite history. He had the chance to extenc it further and I'm sure he could've played a decent role for such a team if he was humble enough but he chose ego and money above it - which is a legit choice, don't get me wrong, but to me as a football fan it is pretty disappointing because I would have loved to see him for a few more years and maybe get his hands on another trophy even if it was in a part time role.
This Saudi Arabia thing just feels a bit.. hollow and anticlimactic.
Congratulation Ronaldo for winning trophy(-ies) with Manchester United in his 2nd stint. He indeed proved doubters wrong.
I think he needs it. He is really going to struggle with retirement once his inevitable foray into management fails.
I feel as though he might come back to Europe for one last go, Ibra did, if he's scoring an average of 2 goals a game there you might get one or two teams considering giving him a way out, unless he has to see through the length of the contract, I think if he doesn't come back this summer it'll probably be too late
Does he get a medal?
I think he’s at the Fury v Paul fight. Would be on brand for him to wear his Carabao cup medal at ringside.
Didn't play a single minute so no.
Hope they send it to him in Doreen the cleaners recycled Amazon delivery packaging, padded with used Egg McMuffin wrappers or whatever else is in the office bins at OT and don’t pay the full postage so he has to go to the Saudi post office and pay the rest of the postage himself. The smell of grease and bits of cheap cheese slice stuck to it.
That's a shame. He could have presented it to the crowd like they do with World Cup medals.
No, he will if we somehow win the league cos he's played ten games. The europa league I don't know, he played but I think knockout medals are more at the clubs discretion
That's actually pretty good. But regardless, I don't think any club could pay what Al Nassr would be asking for him.
So what if more money? it's still at the same level as Nation League.
Well there were the rumours about loaning him to Newcastle, though they are looking less sure of a champions league place. I think if a team was willing to take him on loan for a year and he was willing to reduce his wages, he'd sign a year extension at Al nassr, could see a deal like that being worked out if there's any European teams willing to take a punt and he's willing to reduce his demands
Apparently, but he’s still got his fanboys. They’ll go to the end (of time and space).
Listened to the manager, been humble? So basically if he’d just been a different person entirely? Work as hard as Weghorst? Like now, for the first time in his career, at 38. I mean, the wishful thinking here is completely untethered from reality.
I think he'd still be a better option than weghorst
But nah last season he got played too often because we had no back up, and it ran him into the ground, maybe he can come back to Europe, but assuming we get a takeover it's not going to be a choice between him and weghorst, we should be aiming an awful lot higher
Better option how? We literally had him in the team this season, and he was fecking awful. We looked shocking every time he played. And he was selfish, toxic and disruptive. But it’s our fault because we overplayed him last season? Please. Wout was signed to be a hard working target man and link up man. He’s led the line well within his limitations. He’s contributed way more to our season already than Ronaldo did to it before he left.
But he isn’t humble. He’s where he is because he’s a narcissistic arsehole. He could never have played off our bench because of that mental limitation. Being a narcissist is the same barrier as, say, having no pace. Just because you wished he could be humble, doesn’t mean it’s an easy fix. And no, he’s not good enough to play for a top 6 side any more. The Saudi league is barely above semi pro level. He’s 38, his legs are gone, and he’s not adapted mentally to that change, and he never will. His entire game has always been built around it all being about him. He’s never worked for the team, ever. He just scored shit loads of goals because he was ridiculously good at running, finishing, heading, shooting, and off the ball movement. When he aged and was no longer much good at running, moving, or dribbling, lost his edge with his shooting and finishing, he has feck all to offer a top side; because he isn’t a team player, and has never been.
We live in an era where luxury players basically don’t exist any more. Players that don’t run for the team and basically only play for their own stats or vision, just have no place in the modern game. In the rare instances they do, they have to be insanely good at what they do, e.g. Haaland. Ronaldo was always that type of player, and once he wasn’t particularly good at what he does anymore, he wasn’t just not much of an asset, he actually became a liability. A very expensive liability. Any top team that puts him out there is pretty much playing with 10 men most of the game.
That’s the problem City have with Haaland right now. They look worse with him because he isn’t a team player at all. He’s that selfish, luxury player that Ronaldo was most of his career; difference is, Haaland is fecking insanely good at what he does still. So they make it work. Like we made it work by putting Ronaldo up front, Rooney on the left and asked Rooney to do all Ronaldo’s running for him when we lost possession.
This whole Saudi thing would be a fun little distraction for fans for a much venerated former great enjoying retirement level football. It’d be nostalgic watching him play. Except, we have the benefit of knowing what a massive fecking dickhead he was behind the scenes at the club, and what a huge toxic cumstain he was in the dressing room. (And if you don’t know, ask around, I posted a ton of info about it from an inside source last year). Added to that the massive disrespect he put on the club (twice). So watching him do this thing over there, acting like he’s actually doing anything of note whatsoever, and people lapping it up and saying he’s still capable of playing in a top league for a top club, is fecking delusional.
Doing well in the Saudi league but the level of football is crap. Looks like he's playing against preschoolers
Ronaldo will always be a part of United History. He was a part of our incredible United team before going to Real and how I loved to watch him play.
The interview with Piers is disappointing and uncalled for, but let's not forget the good things that he has done for the club. I am quite sure he had wished he didn't do the interview which he felt he needed at that time.
The interview with Piers is disappointing and uncalled for, but let's not forget the good things that he has done for the club. I am quite sure he had wished he didn't do the interview which he felt he needed at that time.
I agree with p much all this except RE: Haaland I think he works way harder off the ball than people think. Topped the list for that stat of successful pressures since Weghorst signed that people were posting. You'd never see Ronaldo near the top 10 of such a list.
He ruined his legacy, by shitting all over the club. Good riddance.
Of course he's part of the history. He literally is. I just have no good feelings when I think about Ronaldo these days. An interview with Piers Morgan was such a shitty way to leave the club. He'd have been better off not returning.
It wouldn't be an issue at all if he had finished his season and graceful gone into semiretirement for the money. But the fecker said he wanted a UCL club and disrespected United only to end up in submediocrity. He can score a gazillion goals in the desert and no one will blink.
No one is going to want to pay his salary. At European football level, he can't cut it anymore.
I don't think I've ever seen a hint of personality in Ronaldo.
True, but while Ten Hag can get Weghorst to aide the team without scoring, Ronaldo was dragging us down like a stone.
Wishful thinking? I hate the cnut. Could he do what Weghorst does? Of course he could. Would he? No. I think I made that point pretty clear but it looks like you're too busy choking on a dictionary.
He has no legacy, He's as liked as Tevez, maybe even less among our fans after what he did. He's nothing but a selfish cnut.