Nobody expected that Cristiano Ronaldo would spend the twilight of his career in Saudi Arabia.
But after his explosive interview with Piers Morgan which saw his contract terminated by mutual consent at Manchester United, he didn't seem to have many options. At the time of the interview however, a move to Al-Nassr did not seem part of the plan.
Morgan and Ronaldo seemed to imply in the now infamous interview that the player was above a move to Saudi Arabia. The interviewer said during the broadcast: "If it was just about money, you'd be in Saudi Arabia earning this king's ransom, but that's not what motivates you."
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Morgan continued: "You want to keep at the top." Ronaldo simply nodded and responded: "Exactly." However, after a disappointing World Cup, the offers from the teams that would 'keep him at the top' never materialised.
Of course, many fans took the opportunity to take aim at Morgan after Ronaldo signed for Al-Nassr, especially after the experienced journalist doubled down on Twitter a few weeks after the interview that the 37-year-old would never move to the Middle East.
Now the dust has settled, Morgan has, unsurprisingly, changed his tune.
In an interview with Tatler, he celebrated Ronaldo's switch to Saudi Arabia and also took the opportunity to mock the forward's long-term rival Lionel Messi, saying: “Thanks to the fall-out from our interview, Ronaldo signed the biggest transfer deal in football history, and is now the world’s highest-paid athlete, at the age of 37.
“He’s also doing what he’s done throughout his career, and which for me gives him the edge over Messi, and that’s challenge himself in a new country, and new league, at a time when football in the Middle East is really taking off, as we saw at the Qatar World Cup where Morocco reached the semi-finals and Saudi Arabia beat the eventual winners, Messi’s Argentina.”
Morgan continued to insist that Ronaldo had been the real winner despite his perceived fall from grace: “He wanted freedom from Manchester United, where he rightly felt he had been badly disrespected by both the manager and senior club executives.
"Ideally, I think he’d have preferred to play for another top club in the Champions League for a year or two, but Al Nassr made him a staggering offer, and I think the fresh challenge of raising the profile of football in a new region of the world, at the twilight of his incredible career, really appealed to him.”
Morgan ended the interview by saying that he had been exchanging texts with the forward and that he was enjoying life in his new surroundings.
Former Liverpool defender and Sky Sports pundit Jamie Carragher said recently that Ronaldo's move to Al-Nassr was a sad end to his career. Morgan also took issue with this saying: “He (Carragher) didn’t even get to finish his career with an interview with me – he wasn’t big enough.”
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