Crossroads: Cristiano Ronaldo is without a club after leaving Manchester United
(Picture: AFP via Getty Images)Gary Neville has backed Cristiano Ronaldo to stay in the Premier League following his exit from Manchester United.
Standard Sport understand the 37-year-old is waiting to see if a Champions League-level club emerge as a viable destination despite a money-spinning offer from Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr.
Ronaldo denied a move to the Middle East was close while away at the World Cup and has been training individually at former club Real Madrid since returning from Qatar.
Chelsea were offered the superstar forward over the course of the summer but declined the chance to move, with Raheem Sterling and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang arriving instead.
Newcastle are another to have been touted as a potential landing spot, though the club have stopped short of making such high-profile signings since their takeover.
Ronaldo’s Old Trafford exit came after an explosive interview with Piers Morgan in which he hit out at former teammate Neville, who he described as having “a job in television where they must criticise to be more famous.”
Still, the Sky Sports pundit claims he wants to see Ronaldo remain in the Premier League, though stressed any suitor would simply have to start a player of such high profile every week.
“I think that pressure of having him on the bench, and how the media is so big, he’s so big with the fans, he’s one of the great players to have ever played the game, that seeing him on the bench is almost like a magnet for trouble for the club he’s playing for, because the focus becomes the player who’s not on the pitch, rather than the players who are playing,” he told Sky Sports.
“I hope he can find a club in the major leagues, even the Premier League, I’d love him to stay in the Premier League at a club that can have him up front and we can watch him every week because that’s what we want to see, we want to see him playing."
