After lighting up football’s biggest stages, Cristiano Ronaldo faces a very different reality in Saudi Arabia with smaller stadiums and fewer tall teams – and some very high temperatures.
Ronaldo, 37, says he is accepting the “challenge” of the Saudi Pro League, a step into the unknown for a player who has long been drawn to Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu stadium or the “theatre of dreams”, Manchester United’s Old Trafford. is used more.
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The transition has been marred by a combined 400 million euros he will receive in salary from his new team, Al Nassr, and a separate payment for acting as an ambassador for an expected Saudi Kingdom. World cup bid, according to sources close to the club.
But it will be a huge adjustment for the five-time Ballon d’Or winner, who will soon be playing in modest venues including the 6,000-seat Al Batin Stadium.
Ronaldo will make his Saudi Pro League debut for Al Nassr on Sunday, following an exhibition appearance against his great rival Lionel Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Thursday.
The 16-team league will take Ronaldo from Dammam on the Gulf Coast to Jeddah on the Red Sea, as well as desert provincial towns such as Mazmah and Hofuf, the center of Saudi Arabia’s date industry.
– Chartered Aircraft –
While Al Hilal and Al Ittihad, the giants of Saudi football, play in 62,000-capacity home grounds, a handful of Pro League teams have smaller venues holding fewer than 10,000 fans, and some pitches are surrounded by running tracks.
“Sometimes the stadiums are not in the best condition,” Maqbel al-Jabani, editor-in-chief of Al Riadiya newspaper, told AFP.
“The presence that Ronaldo is used to will not be present. We are not used to seeing packed stadiums.”
Ronaldo’s home ground will be Al Nasser’s 25,000-capacity Mersool Park, located on a university campus in Riyadh, and was packed to capacity for his grand unveiling earlier this month.
Club sources said chartered planes would take the superstar and his team-mates to away games, requiring them to make long journeys by coach through desert landscapes.
The Pro League season runs from August to May, avoiding the sweltering heat when temperatures regularly exceed 40 °C (104 °F).
Even evenings, when many sports are played, can stay above 30C (86 Fahrenheit) in August and September and from March until the end of the season.
“The weather will present a challenge for Ronaldo… but I think he will adapt and excel,” said Saleh Al-Khalif, deputy editor-in-chief of Al-Riyadiyah.
– ‘No walk in the park’ –
Saudi Arabia is a dominant force in Asian football with six World Cup appearances including a famous victory over Messi’s Argentina in the recent edition in Qatar.
Al Hilal and Al Ittihad have won six AFC Champions League titles between them. Along with Ronaldo, Al Nassr will hope to qualify for this year’s competition and join their great rivals as Asian champions.
While the standards of the Pro League may not match the heights of England, Spain and Italy, where Ronaldo has spent his career so far, it is a competitive division.
The Saudi league started in 1976 but has had six different winners in the 14 years since the Pro League became the top tier.
Khalif said that the “strength and diversity” of the league could be compared to English football, and stressed that it would not be a “walk in the park” for Ronaldo.
The Pro League is filled with 128 foreign players from 48 countries, with each team allowed eight signings.
At Al Nasr, coached by France’s Rudy Garcia, Ronaldo’s teammates include former Colombia and Arsenal goalkeeper David Ospina and former Brazilian midfielder Luis Gustavo of Bayern Munich.
Ronaldo’s first task will be to keep Al Nassr top of the league and secure their first title in four years. But other teams will be highly motivated to stop him.
Khalif said, “Ronaldo is a legend…and all teams will play to defeat Ronaldo.”
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(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed)