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RIYADH – Al Nassr megastar, Cristiano Ronaldo, has been praised by his former teammate at Real Madrid, Federico Valverde, to the skies. CR7 – Cristiano Ronaldo’s nickname – received this praise after bringing the Saudi Arabian League to rapid progress.
As is known, Cristiano Ronaldo has given the whole world a surprise after choosing to join Al Nassr. The 38 year old player joined the Saudi Arabian club after parting ways with Manchester United at the end of 2022 or after the 2022 World Cup.
The move of the owner of five Ballon d’Or titles to the Middle East has apparently triggered the recruitment of many of the world’s top players into the Saudi Arabian League during the summer of 2023. Such as the 2022 Ballon d’Or winner, Karim Benzema, who joined Al Ittihad to the Brazilian striker , Neymar Junior, to Al Hilal.
It is not surprising that the 2023-2024 Saudi Arabian League, starring Cristiano Ronaldo et al, is experiencing rapid progress and is becoming increasingly competitive. Responding to this, Valverde also praised and called CR7 a pioneer in the development of the game in Saudi Arabia.
“I think there has been a lot of progress with the players who have come here (Saudi Arabia). For example, Cristiano Ronaldo, who started all this,” said Valverde, quoted from Goal International, Wednesday (10/1/2024).
“This shows what they want to do and having a player of that quality (Cristiano Ronaldo) is important,” he added.
Seeing the influence of his former teammate, will Valverde follow in Ronaldo’s footsteps? The Uruguayan midfielder explained that he could not possibly move to Saudi Arabia at this point in his career and wanted to enjoy his stint with Los Blancos.
“It is absolutely impossible for me to go to the Saudi League. Impossible. 10, 20, or 30 million is not going to change my life. I am at Real Madrid, the best club in the world. I love my life in Madrid, the same goes for my family and that’s it,” Valverde said.
So far, the trend of transferring the world’s top players to Saudi Arabia shows no signs of stopping and is expected to continue to increase in the next few years. Michael Emenalo, director of football for the Saudi Pro League, reported that they are still pursuing Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) superstar, Kylian Mbappe.
(sto)