Cristiano Ronaldo reveals his biggest challenge in Saudi Premier League
Jun 02, 2023
New Delhi [India], June 2 : One of the best striker in the past decade, Cristiano Ronaldo revealed the challenges he had to face in Saudi Arabia after he joined Al Nassr in January.
Ronaldo now 38 years old began his journey in the Saudi League following his January move after his Manchester United contract was cancelled by mutual consent last November. In his first season, he scored 14 goals in 16 games.
With Ronaldo's arrival, Al Nassr had a realistic chance to clinch the league after falling short consecutively in the past three seasons.
Ronaldo has dominated every single league he stepped in, but other than adapting to the intensity, technical aspects and physicality of the game, there are some other sets of challenges a player goes through - the change of environment.
"One example is in Europe we train more in the morning, but here we train in the afternoon, or evening and in Ramadan we train at 10 at night -- so this is so strange," Ronaldo said in an interview with the SPL as quoted by ESPN.
"But as I tell you these situations are part of an experience, memories. I like to live these moments because you learn with these things."
"It is difficult, but it is nothing I have not seen before. My experience so far is that Saudi fans they really love football and like to live life and it is good and I am so happy until now," Ronaldo concluded.
Ronaldo also went on to clear the rumours that started to build up and the Portuguese forward was in contention to return to the Premier League with Newcastle United. However, he put them to rest with a single reply.
"I am happy here, I want to continue here, I will continue here. And in my opinion, if they continue to do the work that they want to do here, for the next five years, I think the Saudi league can be a top-five league in the world," Ronaldo said in an interview with the SPL as quoted by ESPN.
"The league is very good. But I think we have many, many opportunities to still grow. The league is competitive. We have very good teams, very good Arab players, but they need to improve a little bit more the infrastructure.
"Even the referees, the VAR system, should be a little quicker. I think other small things they need to improve," Ronaldo signed off.
