By Harrison Bray

Cristiano Ronaldo’s announcement photo.

On December 30, 2022, Portuguese soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo took no time finding a new team after departing from UK soccer powerhouse Manchester United and announced his signing with Saudi Arabian team Al-Nassr. This move will make Ronaldo the highest-paid soccer player ever, with a yearly contract of over 200 million dollars. 

This move is happening after Ronaldo split ways with Manchester United just before the World Cup. As a free agent, he had hoped to stay within Europe when finding a new team but fell short on finding any true and serious offers. 

Ronaldo’s new contract will last two and a half years, and he will reportedly be receiving 176 million British pounds, or 211 million dollars, per year. Previously at Manchester United, Ronaldo had only been receiving around 31 million dollars per year, so this is a massive step up. This contract will surpass the previous highest earners in the sport. Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi, two of the highest paid athletes in the game, are currently earning around 110 million dollars per year. Ronaldo began to train with the club at the start of 2023. Although he had received a two-match ban for slapping a phone out of a child’s hand, he made his debut on January 19 against Paris St. Germain (PSG), Messi and Mbappe’s team.

Ronaldo’s transfer is a historic moment for soccer. Moving both to a Saudi Arabian league ranked 27th in the world and receiving a record salary is a significant move for one of the sport’s best players. This could be the start of more European players moving to foreign leagues as they get older. More commonly, we have seen players move to the United States’ Major League Soccer (MLS) after their European careers. This list of players includes stars such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Gareth Bale. Now, we could possibly see players adventuring into Asia and Middle East for more opportunities. 

With this new signing, Al-Nassr is hoping to promote and develop the club. The club tweeted, “This is a signing that will… inspire our club to achieve even greater success.” The club is currently ranked first in the Saudi Pro League and is hoping to become much more competitive within Asia and the Middle East. Just since the announcement of Ronaldo’s signing, the club has gained over ten million followers on their Instagram. Ronaldo brings both his soccer ability and his popularity and publicity. Al-Nassr is also rumored to be trying to sign many other European players. 

Although this move isn’t the end of Ronaldo’s career, it is the end of his time playing within Europe. Ronaldo started his European career in 2002 at Sporting CP in Portugal before moving to England to play for Manchester United. Playing for this team is when Ronaldo truly made a name for himself. After Manchester United, he moved to the Spanish team Real Madrid in 2009, where he continued to prove himself as one of the best. While at Real Madrid, Ronaldo was able to win the Champions League four times. After a great career at Real Madrid, he finally went to Italy in 2018 and played for Juventus. Again, while there, he kept scoring and working to prove why he should be known as the best in the world. His final move was back to Manchester United. While this was the tail end to his European career, he fell short of expectations when playing in England once again.

On January 19, Ronaldo faced Messi in what might have been their last game against each other. Ronaldo captained a Saudi all-star team, with the best players from both Al-Nassr and their rivals Al-Hilal. He was playing against the French super team PSG, which includes Messi, Mbappe, and even Neymar. 

Messi and Ronaldo during a game on Jan. 19. 

During this game, Messi was the player that opened up the scoresheet, getting a goal in just the third minute of the game. But in the 34th minute, Ronaldo scored an equalizer. PSG continued to score another to take the lead, but Ronaldo responded, making it 2-2 at the half. Both players didn’t play too long into the second half, and neither scored again. When the game ended, PSG got out with the 5-4 win in a game that should have been a very easy win for them. At the conclusion of the game, Ronaldo was presented with the Man of the Match award for having the best performance in the game. If this is the last time that Ronaldo plays against Messi, then it was the best way to do it for Ronaldo.

All photos via Ronaldo’s Instagram @Cristiano.