Al Nassr boss Rudi Garcia has spoken of his excitement at the possibility of linking up with Cristiano Ronaldo after the Saudi Arabian club were strongly linked with a move.
The Portuguese superstar ended his relationship with Manchester United by mutual consent last month, following his bombshell interview with Piers Morgan. A decision is likely to be made promptly after the end of Portugal’s World Cup campaigns after Ronaldo prioritised breaking multiple different World Cup records in what was his final edition of his tournament.
Leading European clubs have distanced themselves from a move including Real Madrid – where the striker is the all-time club record scorer – who have no interest in a sensational return for Ronaldo. Sporting Lisbon have also distanced themselves from a Ronaldo return alongside Bayern Munich.
Ronaldo could be caught in a transfer tug of war between two Saudi Arabian clubs, as Al Nassr’s Riyadh-based rivals Al Hilal have also registered an interest in his signing. The nation’s Sports minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Turki Al-Faisal already told Sky News that he would welcome Ronaldo’s arrival to the domestic league.
Interest from Al Nassr had already been established as they had already submitted an offer to Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes. Details of the approach claim the striker would earn a mammoth £172.9million per year in a deal that would take him beyond his 40 th birthday.
The Saudi club’s boss Garcia, whose distinguished coaching career included stints at Roma, Marseille and Lyon, has now spoken about the possibility of Ronaldo joining the club. He opened up on how he was a candidate for United’s interim coaching role last year to replace Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, before Ralf Rangnick’s appointment.
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“I think that any coach would be delighted to train a great star like Cristiano and already in November 2021 I was very close to going to United," Garcia told an interview with Diario AS.
“They chose Ralf Rangnick, but I met twice with John Murtough and Darren Fletcher [United's director of football and technical director respectively].
“I came very close to coaching this club and was very motivated to go, who wouldn't be motivated to coach United? Any coach. United's simple interest has allowed me to be sure of my ambitions in the future.
“I have always thought that the great players are the easiest to manage because they are very intelligent, I verified this with Francesco Totti at Roma.”
