Revealed: Ronaldo's €250m route out of Man Utd in January
FT Desk
- 12 Sept 2022 15:42 BST
- 3 min read
Cristiano Ronaldo is unlikely to stick about at Manchester United until the end of the season, and he could be set to forego Champions League football once and for all in order to facilitate his exit.
Ronaldo has scored a record 140 goals in the Champions League, something he was desperate to extend upon this season after United failed to qualify for the competition in 2021/22.
But the European footballing elite weren't exactly forthcoming with offers for the 37-year-old. New Chelsea owner Todd Boehly was understood to be interested, but then-manager Thomas Tuchel rejected the move.
Jorge Mendes trying to get Ronaldo out of Manchester 🚜 pic.twitter.com/Q2FS9d46BA
— Football Transfers (@Transfersdotcom) July 31, 2022
Atletico Madrid and Sporting Lisbon couldn't afford him, Napoli later admitted that their reported interest wasn't serious, and it even got to the point that Ronaldo was being linked with Rangers, last year's runners-up in Scotland.
The most concrete bids for Ronaldo came from Saudi Arabia: a destination he was unwilling to countenance in the summer but might now be open to after starting the current campaign warming the bench at Old Trafford.
Ronaldo 'a great role model'
"We would love to see a player like Cristiano Ronaldo playing in the Saudi league," Yasser Al-Misehal, president of the Saudi Arabian Football Federation, told the Athletic.
"It would bring a huge positive feedback and it would be big news for everyone. I'm sure everyone knows the achievements and records of Cristiano Ronaldo, but also as a player who is a great role model.
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"I think, 'Why not?', I'm sure it would be a very expensive deal, of course, but we can see our clubs getting higher revenues in the past couple of years. We have already seen some big players who used to play in the Premier League come to the Saudi league.
"I like Cristiano Ronaldo as a player and I would like to see him play in Saudi Arabia."
Al-Misehal didn't say which Saudi club would be Ronaldo's most likely destination, but Al Hilal broke the domestic transfer record when they signed Matheus Pereira from West Brom for €18.7m in August 2021.
