Al Nassr forward Cristiano Ronaldo has revealed the one thing that he doesn’t enjoy about living in Saudi Arabia.
Ronaldo, 40, is currently playing his football at Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr, having joined the Public Investment Fund-owned club after falling out with Erik ten Hag at Manchester United in the winter of 2022.
Since then, he has continued to score goals, despite being in his fifth decade of life and his 24th year as a professional footballer.
Of course, Ronaldo made his name at United before becoming the world’s most expensive player when he signed for Real Madrid in 2009.
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After netting 451 times for Real – the most of any player – a spell in Italy with Juventus followed before he rejoined United in 2021, before then arriving at Al Nassr of Saudi Arabia in 2022.
Ronaldo, who shares a dressing room with former Premier League stars Joao Felix and Sadio Mane, appears to be enjoying life in the Gulf State and penned a lucrative contract extension through to 2027 with Al Nassr in the summer.
Speaking to former United centre-back Rio Ferdinand on his YouTube channel last year, Ronaldo explained how he was “really happy” to be in Saudi Arabia before going on to describe the nation as a “lovely country” that his “family loves”.
Ronaldo also stated that adapting to the culture “wasn’t too difficult” despite having lived in Europe before the switch.
But what does Ronaldo not enjoy about life in Saudi Arabia?
Well, during a recent interview with Piers Morgan on the ‘UR.Cristiano’ YouTube channel, Ronaldo spoke about his passion for collecting luxury cars, with the player claiming his Bugatti was his favourite, having also recently added a Mercedes to his collection of more than 40 vehicles.
When asked if he ever drives by Morgan, Ronaldo replied: “I’m not [driving] a lot in Saudi Arabia because we are used to training in the afternoon and I go always with a driver…”
Morgan chipped in: “And the traffic is terrible.”
Before Ronaldo replied: “And the traffic is terrible, but for example, when we are coming back home, there is no traffic.”
The five-time Ballon d’Or winner then revealed that he did, in fact, recently drive his club-sponsored BMW home despite previously not getting behind the wheel in the “six months” prior.
Despite earning around £488,000 per day, equal to £3.42m per week, £20,357 per hour, £339.28 per minute and £5.65 per second from his contract at Al Nassr, Ronaldo also admitted that money was no longer important to him.
This comes after the Bloomberg Billionaire Index reported that the 40-year-old became the world’s first active footballer to become a billionaire back in October.
When asked if this was true by Morgan, Ronaldo claimed that he became a billionaire “many years ago”.
The Portuguese said: “Becoming a billionaire was one of the MAIN GOALS that I had.”
So, with his future at Al Nassr confirmed until 2027, Ronaldo likely has one final achievement that has so far evaded him to add to his list of accomplishments, and that’s to win the 2026 World Cup with his beloved Portugal.
Topics: Cristiano Ronaldo, Al Nassr, Saudi Arabia, Football
Luke Davies