After dazzling soccer followers throughout Europe, Cristiano Ronaldo is now dealing with a starkly completely different actuality in Saudi Arabia, the place the stadiums are smaller than he had been used to and the groups he can be dealing with are sadly much less famend – all within the baking warmth of the Saudi desert.
Ronaldo, 37, says he is embracing the “challenge” of the Saudi Pro League, a step into the unknown for a participant who’s extra used to Real Madrid’s heaving Santiago Bernabeu stadium or the “Theatre of Dreams,” Manchester United’s Old Trafford and of the Old Lady’s Allianz stadium.
The transition has been eased by the mixed 400 million euros he’ll obtain in wages from his new crew, Al Nassr, and a separate cost to behave as an envoy for an anticipated Saudi World Cup bid, in keeping with sources near the membership.
But will probably be a giant adjustment for the five-time Ballon d’Or winner, who will quickly be operating out at modest venues together with the 6,000-seat Al Batin Stadium.
After an exhibition look towards his nice rival Lionel Messi’s Paris Saint-Germain within the Saudi capital Riyadh on Thursday, Ronaldo will make his Saudi Pro League debut for Al Nassr on Sunday.
The 16-team league will take Ronaldo from Dammam on the Gulf coast to Jeddah on the Red Sea, in addition to desert-bound provincial cities reminiscent of Majma’ah and Hofuf, a hub for Saudi Arabia’s date business.
Chartered planes
While Al Hilal and Al Ittihad, the giants of Saudi soccer, play in 62,000-capacity residence grounds, a handful of Pro League groups have small venues for lower than 10,000 followers, and a few pitches are surrounded by operating tracks.
“Sometimes the stadiums are not in the best condition,” Moqbel al-Zabni, editor-in-chief of the Al Riyadiah newspaper, advised Agence France-Presse (AFP), cautioning that vacant seats are a typical sight.
“The attendances that Ronaldo is used to will not exist. We are not used to seeing stadiums full to capacity,” he mentioned.
Ronaldo’s residence floor can be Al Nassr’s 25,000-capacity Mrsool Park, which lies on a college campus in Riyadh and was packed for his gala unveiling earlier this month.
Chartered planes will ferry the famous person and his team-mates to away video games, membership sources mentioned, sparing him lengthy coach journeys by way of the desert panorama.
The Pro League season runs from August to May, avoiding the worst of the fierce summer time warmth when temperatures routinely prime 40 levels Celsius (104 levels Fahrenheit).
Even the evenings, when many video games are performed, can stay above 30 levels Celsius in August and September, and from March till the tip of the season.
“The weather will pose a challenge to Ronaldo… but I think he will adapt and excel,” mentioned Saleh al-Khalif, Al-Riyadiah’s deputy editor-in-chief.
No stroll within the park
Saudi Arabia is a number one drive in Asian soccer with six World Cup appearances, together with a well-known victory over Messi’s Argentina on the latest version in Qatar.
Al Hilal and Al Ittihad have received six AFC Champions League titles between them. With Ronaldo, Al Nassr may have hopes of qualifying for this yr’s competitors and becoming a member of their nice rivals as Asian champions.
Although the Pro League’s requirements can not match the heights of England, Spain and Italy, the place Ronaldo has spent his profession thus far, it’s a aggressive division.
The Saudi league was launched in 1976 however within the 14 years because the Pro League grew to become the highest tier, there have been six completely different winners.
Khalif mentioned the league’s “strength and diversity” have been similar to English soccer, insisting it will be no “walk in the park” for Ronaldo.
The Pro League is filled with 128 overseas gamers from 48 international locations, with every crew allowed to signal eight.
At Al Nassr, coached by Frenchman Rudi Garcia, Ronaldo’s team-mates embrace Colombia and ex-Arsenal goalkeeper David Ospina and Brazilian midfielder Luis Gustavo, previously of Bayern Munich.
Ronaldo’s first activity can be to maintain Al Nassr on prime of the league and safe their first title in 4 years. But the opposite groups can be extremely motivated to cease him.
“Ronaldo is a legend… and all teams will play to beat Ronaldo,” mentioned Khalif.
