Cristiano Ronaldo signs with the Saudi club Al-Nasr in return for his record salary

Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo joins Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr club on a deal that runs until June 2025.

And Al-Nasr Club wrote in a tweet on its official account in the English language, “History is in the process of being formed.”

“This signing will not only inspire our club to achieve more success, but also our league, our nation and the generations to come, boys and girls to be the best version of themselves. Welcome Cristiano to your new home, Al Nasr FC.”

The Saudi club quoted Ronaldo as saying that he was “keen to try a new football league in a different country.”

The 37-year-old Portuguese captain is a free agent after leaving British club Manchester United following a dramatic fallout with some of his management.

News of Ronaldo’s signing on Friday follows months of rumors and speculation about whether he will join a Saudi team, with more than one making big offers of hundreds of millions of dollars. In the summer, Ronaldo turned down an offer from a different Saudi club, Al-Hilal, which would have landed him a contract worth around $370 million over a number of years. At the time, he chose to stay at Manchester United, saying he was happy there.

Multiple outlets have cited Ronaldo’s salary with victory at around $200 million annually when including commercial agreements – which, if confirmed, would be the largest salary ever in the history of the sport.

Senior football reporter Fabrizio Romano outlined the contract deal in a tweet, calling it “the biggest salary ever in football”.

At 37, Ronaldo is at the normal retirement age for a professional soccer player, so his signing extends his career with a great financial return. Ronaldo’s contract at Manchester United made him earn $605,000 per week. He is one of the highest paid athletes in history.

Victory contract It is said see Ronaldo gets more than a million dollars a week.

Al-Nasr Club, founded in Riyadh in 1955, is one of the oldest football clubs in Saudi Arabia and has won nine titles in the Saudi Premier League. The current manager of the team is the Frenchman Rudi Garcia, whose biography includes the management of first-class European clubs such as Roma, Olympique de Marseille and Lille.

Saudi clubs are known for their ability to offer large salaries to foreign players, especially as the oil-rich and conservative kingdom builds its sports, entertainment and other industries to attract tourism, talent and investment that will help diversify its economy. Saudi Arabia has submitted a bid to host the 2030 FIFA World Cup.

Ronaldo is the highest scorer in the history of professional football, with a total of 819 career goals until the end of 2022. He scored a whopping 450 goals for the Spanish Real Madrid team, 145 goals in 346 matches for Manchester United, 118 for the Portugal national team and 101 for the Italian club Juventus.

In addition to Ronaldo’s footballing achievements, there is a huge following on social media – something that is likely to be highly valuable to the Saudi kingdom as it seeks to attract more positive attention to the country. Ronaldo became the first athlete to surpass 500 million followers on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram in 2021, and he currently has 525 million followers on Instagram alone.

Ronaldo played in his last World Cup finals during the 2022 Qatar Championship, setting a new record as the first man to score in five different FIFA World Cups when he scored the winning goal against Ghana. The Portuguese national team was later eliminated from the tournament by Morocco.