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Former Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves has claimed that Cristiano Ronaldo’s continued goalscoring form for his country proves “that Saudi football has quality.”
Ronaldo scored the 900th goal of his career against Croatia last week, and followed it up with his 901st goal with a late winner against Scotland. Portugal won both matches 2-1.
And Neves, who moved to Al-Hilal last summer and won the Saudi title last season, has said that the performance level of both himself and Ronaldo shows that the Saudi league has plenty of quality within its ranks.
“I have said this a few times - if you compare my GPS data from English football to Saudi football, I run even more, but with the difference that I run in 40 degrees [celsius],” he said.
“I am in good shape physically. Both Cristiano and I proved today that Saudi football has quality.”
Neves came in for criticism when he left Wolves for Al-Hilal, though the league is increasingly attracting some of the world’s best players, with Neymar, Joao Cancelo and Karim Benzema all having signed for Saudi clubs in recent summers.
27-year-old Neves went on to add that it is not unrealistic to expect Ronaldo to reach 1,000 goals in his career, explaining that “with Cristiano, anything is possible”.
Ronaldo has scored 68 goals for Al-Nassr since moving to the club in 2023, though his performances for his country during Euro 2024 prompted speculation over his international future.
Portugal manager Roberto Martinez had benched Ronaldo for the Scotland match despite his goal against Croatia, explaining that “Cristiano can’t play two 90-minute games” at the age of 39.
However, the Spaniard added that Ronaldo “is in a very good moment”, with the most important things being that “we need to protect all the players”.
“I liked his commitment. He’s an incredible player,” he added.
