Cristiano Ronaldo has confirmed that he is not looking to leave Saudi side Al-Nassr, despite rumours linking him with a return to a club in Europe. The 38-year-old Portugal hero left Manchester United for Saudi Arabia in January to become the highest paid footballer in history and has since scored 14 goals in 16 league games for Al-Nassr.
When asked about his future, Ronaldo said: ‘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. I will be part of your world, your culture, I will be here, I hope I make the people enjoy through my games, my performance, and to win things, but again, thank you for welcoming me, and I will try to give my best during the time that I will be here.’
Ronaldo then discussed the differences between playing in Europe and Saudi Arabia. He said: ‘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, 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 the life and it is good and I am so happy until now.’