Ronaldo came to Al-Nasser for money, not passion, Saudi Arabia’s top scorer last season is clear

Cristiano Ronaldo made an unexpected decision at the beginning of the year. The player, who always wanted to break all sorts of challenges and records, left for Saudi Arabia, specifically he was acquired by Al-Nassr. Despite his talk about the potential of the local league, its former top scorer is clear about the reason why the Portuguese headed to Al-Nassr.

The five Ballon d’Or winner left Europe in January and although few expected it, speculation has been confirmed and Cristiano Ronaldo is headed to Saudi Arabia, whose league has little to offer apart from money.

Al-Nassr offered the Portuguese star an astronomical sum and Ronaldo has since been soaking up the competition there as much as he can. He says he has the potential to measure up to the best competitions in Europe soon.

But beyond that, the Real Madrid and Manchester United legend has taken a dig at Europe, saying that the quality of the leagues there is declining and the only exception is the Premier League. Besides, he believes that his arrival in Saudi Arabia is the reason why better quality footballers have started coming to the Saudi Arabian league.

At 38, Ronaldo is still good enough for the Saudi Arabian league. At least in terms of goals. In 18 competitive games he scored 14 goals and added 2 assists. He didn’t win any trophies with his team in his first season, although when he joined Al-Nassr it was the first team of the league.

However, Ronaldo’s game was quite poor and there are voices from Saudi Arabia that say the Portuguese was expected to have a bigger impact on the team’s game. Now, former Al-Hilal player and the top scorer of the Saudi Arabian league last season, Odion Ighalo, has been brought in.

“When you are young, you play for passion. You don’t worry about money, but at my age (34) you are in the last stage of your career, you don’t know if you will get a year or two more. All my life I’ve played for passion, now I’m playing for money. I am not one of those players who come and say otherwise,” Goal quoted Ighalo as saying.

“Brother, money. At the end of the day, it’s always money. Ronaldo and playing for passion? He earned 100 times more than me in his lifetime, yet he went to Saudi Arabia. He definitely didn’t do it out of passion, he did it for the money,” the Nigerian international added.

Source: OmaSportsTV, Goal, Transfermarkt