Ronaldo categorically proved WRONG after EMBARASSING Al-Nassr result

Cameron Smith

• 18 Jul 2023 18:03 BST
• 4 min read

Cristiano Ronaldo’s damning rant on European football has aged extremely poorly after Al-Nassr, the team he joined in late 2022, were thrashed 5-0 by Celta Vigo last night.

Ronaldo, 37, signed for Al-Nassr after the 2022 Qatar World Cup following the mutual termination of his contract at Manchester United.

A few months prior, during the summer transfer window, Ronaldo had made it clear that he wanted to join a Champions League team, having failed to help Man Utd into the top four in the Premier League. However, no interested parties emerged and he was resigned to joining the Saudi Pro League in December 2022.

MORE: Saudi Pro League summer transfers 2023: All the Done Deals

Now, he has launched a full-blown attack of European football in an attempt to talk up the quality of the Saudi Pro League.

The Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) now own the league’s four biggest teams - Al-Nassr, Al Ahli, Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal - and have immediately set about signing some of the biggest players in world football.

Ronaldo has been joined at Al-Nassr by Marcelo Brozovic and Seko Fofana, Al Ahli have added Roberto Firmino and Edouard Mendy, Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante and Jota have joined Al-Ittihad, and Al-Hilal have purchased Kalidou Koulibaly, Ruben Neves and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic.

MORE: Man Utd flop joins Ronaldo at Al-Nassr on massive contract

In a scathing attack on European football, Ronaldo said: ““In one year, more and more top players will come to Saudi,” as quoted by Fabrizio Romano.

“In a year, the Saudi league will overtake the Turkish league and Dutch league. Players who arrived aren’t like what the president of the European Union said. Jota & Ruben Neves are young players.

“They criticised me for coming to the Saudi League, but what happened now? I opened the way and now all the players are coming here. My decision to join Saudi clubs was 100% crucial to bring in new top players. It’s a fact.

“When I joined Juventus, Serie A was dead and then after I signed… it was revived. Wherever Cristiano goes he generates higher interest. I won't return to European football, the door is completely closed.

“I'm 38 years old, also European football has lost a lot of quality. The only valid one is the Premier League, they're way ahead of all the other leagues.”

Al-Nassr SMASHED by Celta Vigo

While Ronaldo believes that European football “has lost a lot of quality” due to players moving to Saudi Arabia, that doesn’t seem to apply to Celta Vigo, who smashed Al-Nassr 5-0 in a pre-season friendly on Monday.

Ronaldo and Brozovic both started Monday’s friendly against Celta Vigo, which ended in a 5-0 defeat for Al-Nassr in Faro.

Ronaldo only played 48 minutes of the game and was replaced before Celta ran riot in the second half, with the Al-Nassr English Twitter feed providing only brief updates from the game as their side collapsed late on. The Arabic feed, meanwhile, gave up on updates after the Spaniards’ second, thereafter only giving a full-time result.

Celta Vigo finished 13th in La Liga last season, only avoiding relegation by a mere three points after a season-long battle to stay in the division. Celta lost 4-1 at home to Ronaldo’s former club Real Madrid last season.