Al-Nassr FC have reportedly offered Ronaldo — a free agent following a divorce from Manchester United — a contract worth more than nine figures per year.
UPDATE 12/30: Al-Nassr has announced the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo. Click here for Boardroom’s full breakdown of his reported contract details with the club.
UPDATE 12/5: Spanish outlet MARCA reports that a 2.5-year deal worth approximately $200 million per season has been agreed.
Fifty years ago in The Godfather, Marlon Brando’s Don Vito Corleone pledged to make a Hollywood bigshot an offer he can’t refuse. On Wednesday, Saudi Arabian soccer club Al-Nassr FC are reportedly attempting to do their own version with newly-minted free agent Cristiano Ronaldo.
Notably, there are several conflicting narratives out there as of this writing regarding the actual years and money Al-Nassr have placed on the table — they include:
- Rob Dawson of ESPN: A deal worth more than £100 million ($119.27 million) per year through 2025-26; no decision would be made until after the World Cup in Qatar
- Fabrizio Romano: An offer of nearly €200 million ($206.27 million) per year through 2024-25, but no deal signed
- José Félix Díaz of MARCA: A deal worth more than €200 million per year through 2024-25 that’s said to be “close” to being signed
No matter who or what you believe, if you believe it at all, the record-breaking offer for the 37-year-old Portuguese legend is astronomical and unprecedented.
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Al-Nassr, founded in 1955, are based in the Saudi capital of Riyadh and members of the Saudi Pro League. They’ve been league winners nine times, most recently in 2018-19, and finished third in the table last season. Many of their technical staffers are Portuguese, including several assistant coaches and youth coaches.
Before Ronaldo and Manchester United mutually agreed to terminate his contract last week, he was making approximately $600,000 per week. Boardroom previously laid out which teams were most likely to sign CR7, and arguments were primarily predicated on the five-time Ballon d’Or winner wanting to play Champions League football. But along with the possibility of him signing with Major League Soccer — something GOAT debate counterpart Lionel Messi is reportedly also weighing after his Paris Saint-Germain contract runs out — the only suitor outside Europe we listed was a hypothetical mega-offer from a Middle East team that would blow everyone else out of the water.
And now, here we are.
Would Ronaldo really leave Europe to take a Godfather offer from a team like Al-Nassr? There likely won’t be a resolution here until Portugal‘s World Cup run ends; until then, we can only speculate on whether Ronaldo can truly resist what has a chance to end up becoming the largest athlete contract in the history of professional sports.
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