Cristiano Ronaldo struggled with one aspect of Al Nassr training

Cristiano Ronaldo has revealed that he struggled with one part of training when he first moved to Saudi Arabia to join Al Nassr.

No one would have expected Ronaldo would have moved to the Saudi Pro League after leaving Manchester United at the end of last year.

Now however he's being joined by a huge influx of Europe's biggest names, with former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema having already moved.

Neymar is amongst the names being linked with the move to the Middle East this summer, after Newcastle United's owners PIF bought the biggest four Saudi clubs.

The new arrivals will make it even tougher for Ronaldo to make the Saudi Pro League Team of the Season, which he didn't manage to make in his first campaign in the league.

That was despite scoring 14 goals in 16 league games and finishing as the division's fifth top scorer, even though he only joined half way through the season.

Perhaps the 38-year-old's tough start to life in his new country halted his progress of winning the end of season awards, after failing to score in his opening three games.

That might have been to do with the heat, something that the five time Ballon d'Or revealed he grappled with when he first arrived.

"The biggest difference I have found in Saudi is obviously the heat and adapting schedules to train later in the day when it is cooler," he told LiveScore.

"But I have really gotten used to that now. The fans here have been incredible to me, welcoming me, and those that follow me to continue on this amazing journey.

"Every league and country is different and I am very proud to have experienced three different leagues in Europe [and won titles in them all]."

Ronaldo struggled with the heat and having to train later in the day. Image: Alamy

The average high temperatures in Manchester in November are around 9 degrees, which is when he left United ahead of the World Cup.

When he arrived in Riyadh in January the temperature was already twice as hot at around 20 degrees and that's now warmed up to a cool 41!

Right now he's too busy concentrating on helping Portugal qualify for next summer's Euros, as they face Bosnia and Herzegovina and Iceland in the next week.

Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Al Nassr, Saudi Arabia, Saudi Pro League, Football

Ryan Sidle

Ryan is a journalist for SPORTbible with over eight years of experience. Passionate about all sports, he mainly covers football and F1 - Daniel Ricciardo once spent an entire interview referring to him as 'Ryan Gosling,' still his proudest moment.

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