Cristiano Ronaldo, the Al-Nassr superstar, recently spoke about his experience playing in the Saudi Premier League (SPL). Ronaldo signed as a free agent with the Middle Eastern club. Since then, the 38-year-old has appeared in 10 games for Al-Nassr, scoring nine goals and assisting two others.
“Saudi League is not the Premier League” – Cristiano Ronaldo
Ronaldo was also named the SPL’s February player of the month. The Portuguese forward recently compared the Saudi Pro League and the Premier League. While he agreed they were not on the same level, Ronaldo said his experience in Saudi Arabia surprised him. Ronaldo remarked before Portugal’s match against Liechtenstein in the UEFA Euro 2024 qualifiers:
“Saudi League is not the Premier League, I am not going to lie. But it’s a league that has left me positively suprised. It can become a very big league because of how much they want to keep improving.”
The 38-year-presence old’s at the Middle Eastern club have also increased Asian football’s popularity. Once Cristiano Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr, several new countries began broadcasting the SPL. Saudi Arabia’s Minister of Sports, Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Faizal, recently stated:
“I’ll give you an example, just by Ronaldo coming we have 137 channels around the world broadcasting the Saudi league. We wanted that in the beginning but they said they were not interested, but since one player came now it’s all over the world.”
Al-Nassr is presently ranked second in the Saudi Pro League. They have 49 points from 21 games and are one point behind league leaders Al-Ittihad.
