In spite of rumors of a possible return to Europe, Cristiano Ronaldo has stated that he will stay with Al Nassr for the upcoming season.
Cristiano Ronaldo has officially announced that he will continue playing in Saudi Arabia for the upcoming season, this puts an end to the rumours circulating regarding a surprising return to Europe and his former club, Real Madrid.
The Portuguese superstar believes the Saudi Pro League has the capability to become one of the top five leagues globally.
“I am happy here, I want to continue here, I will continue here,” he said.
“And in my opinion, if they continue to do the work that they want to do here, for the next five years, I think the Saudi league can be a top-five league in the world.”
“I will be part of your world, your culture, I will be here, I hope I make the people enjoy through my games, my performance, and to win things, but again, thank you for welcoming me, and I will try to give my best during the time that I will be here.”
The 38-year-old forward also talked about some of the training routines and adjustments he has made since moving to Saudi Arabia from the UK and Europe.
“One example is in Europe we train more in the morning, but here we train in the afternoon, or evening and in Ramadan we train at 10 at night – so this is so strange, but as I tell you these situations are part of an experience, memories,” he explained.
“I like to live these moments because you learn with these things. It is difficult, but it is nothing I have not seen before. My experience so far is that Saudi fans they really love football and like to live the life and it is good and I am so happy until now.”
“Well, my expectation was a little bit different, to be honest I expected to win something this year, but it is not always the way we think or the way we want, sometimes we need passion, consistency, and persistence to achieve the best things.”
“So, I still believe that next year we will improve a lot, let us say in the last five or six months, the team has improved a lot, even the league, all the teams improved.”
“It takes time sometimes, but if you believe and you think it is your goal, I think everything is possible. I expected to win something this year, but we didn’t, but next year I am really positive and confident that things will change, and we go in a better way. So, let us believe that and work on that.”
Despite Cristiano Ronaldo’s impressive performance of scoring 14 goals in 16 league games during the latter half of the season, Al Nassr fell short of winning the league this term, trailing Al Ittihad in second place.
