Al-Nassr fans are already queuing to get their hands on Cristiano Ronaldo‘s No 7 shirt following his lucrative move to the Saudi Arabian club.
Ronaldo’s free transfer to Al-Nassr, which is set to see him earn an astonishing £175m per year, was announced on Friday night after weeks of speculation.
And it hasn’t taken long for supporters to flock to the club store and pay for the jersey that he will be wearing.
Al-Nassr have wasted no time in printing Ronaldo merchandise after his switch was confirmed, and fans have been posing with the shirt while clearly excited to see him play in the Middle East.
Ronaldo has been a free agent in recent weeks after his Manchester United contract was terminated by mutual consent last month.
This decision was made after he criticised the club and manager Erik ten Hag in a bombshell interview with Piers Morgan.
Confirmation of Ronaldo’s contract being ripped up came on the eve of the World Cup, and the 37-year-old insisted that he was fully focused on winning the tournament with Portugal rather than his club future.
However, Ronaldo failed to make a positive impact in Qatar, scoring just once in Portugal’s opening game against Ghana. He was then dropped for the team’s two knockout matches against Switzerland and Morocco.
Portugal lost the latter contest as they exited the competition at the quarter-final stage.
It has since been reported by Marca that Ronaldo’s team were in negotiations with Al-Nassr during the World Cup, and the forward was fully aware that these discussions were taking place.
It is understood that he still hoped that his former club Real Madrid could make a late move to re-sign him, but he knew once he left Old Trafford that it was always likely he would be unable to join a Champions League club.
That has proved to be the case, and he finally put pen to paper on his contract with Al-Nassr after attending a meeting with the club’s president in Madrid this week.
Ronaldo’s move to Al-Nassr has split opinion, with Jamie Carragher claiming it is a ‘sad end’ to his career, particularly in the wake of his great rival Lionel Messi winning the World Cup earlier this month.
Gary Neville also believes things have not worked out how Ronaldo would have wanted, as he is convinced his former team-mate would have preferred to stay in Europe.
