Today’s rumours are the very modern man It is very difficult to find a top quality No 9 in the game and with Paris Saint-Germain’s Randal Kolo Muani available, a fun three-way battle could be heading the way of rumourmongers. Juventus have already had a bid rejected, although they are expected to return with a second offer. While they are crunching the numbers, Manchester United and Chelsea may sneak in with a superior financial package and steal the France international from under the Old Lady’s nose. João Felix is on his way out of Chelsea after making absolutely no impact at the club for a second time, leaving many to wonder why they bothered signing him in the first place. It looked as if he was heading back to his boyhood club Benfica but Al Nassr have stepped in with a €50m bid to lure the benchwarmer to Saudi Arabia, where he will join his international colleague Cristiano Ronaldo at the club. Continue reading...

Today’s fluff is propelled by a fan Alejandro Garnacho wants to leave Manchester United but is not too eager on moving to the Saudi Premier League, even if it means teaming up with Cristiano Ronaldo. Al-Nassr approached the Argentina winger to suggest a change of scene and a massive wage but Garnacho wants to play in Europe. The same reportedly goes for his United colleague Marcus Rashford, with the England forward waiting for Barcelona to make a bid. One United winger finally getting to leave permanently is Jadon Sancho, who has joined Juventus for £17.3m, only £60m or so less than they paid for him four years ago. Continue reading...

Ronaldo says teammate’s death ‘doesn’t make any sense’ Wolves say ‘memories he created will never be forgotten’ Tributes paid after accident in Spain – latest updates Jürgen Klopp and Cristiano Ronaldo led the tributes from across the football world to Diogo Jota after the Liverpool and Portugal forward was killed in a car accident in Spain. Jota’s brother, André, also died in the crash in the province of Zamora. Jota was 28, a father of three young children and had married his long-term partner, Rute Cardoso, less than a fortnight ago. Klopp, who signed Jota for Liverpool in 2020 and managed him for four seasons, posted on Instagram: “This is a moment where I struggle! There must be a bigger purpose! But I can’t see it! Continue reading...

In the social media age, football is a fraction of the Portuguese Übermensch’s appeal and he is untroubled by his paymasters’ morals The winners of next season’s AFC Champions League Two, Asia’s second-tier club competition, will receive about £1.8m. The winners of the Saudi King’s Cup will receive just over £1m. Prize money for the Saudi Pro League is not disclosed, but by the most recent available figures (for 2022-23) is in roughly the same area. Weekly attendances at the King Saud University Stadium, where top-tier ticket prices start at about £12, range between 10,000 and 25,000, although of course you also have to factor in pie and programme sales above that. And so you really have to applaud Al-Nassr’s ambition in handing an estimated £492m to Cristiano Ronaldo over the next two years. Even if they sweep the board at domestic level, if they fight their way past Istiklol of Tajikistan’s 1xBet Higher League and Al-Wehdat of the Jordanian Pro League, if they extract maximum value from merch and sponsorships, you still struggle to see how they can cover a basic salary that comes to £488,000 a day, even before the bonuses and blandishments that will push the total package well beyond that. Continue reading...

Portuguese star will be 42 when deal ends in June 2027 News brings recent transfer speculation to a close Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a new two-year deal at Al Nassr, extending his stay with the Saudi Pro League team to June 2027, when the forward will be 42. “Al Nassr Club Company officially signed a contract extension with Cristiano Ronaldo,” the Riyadh-based club posted on X. “[The] Al Nassr captain’s contract will be valid until 2027.” Continue reading...

What was once simply a garment that declared your affiliation to a club is now a global business earning millions from collectors of vintage kits On the second floor of an unprepossessing building on the outskirts of Amsterdam, there is a metal cabinet that destroys footballers’ DNA. The contraption belongs to MatchWornShirt and was part of a deal to sell the kits of Real Madrid players to the public. To allay concerns that the genetic material of Cristiano Ronaldo might escape into the wild, the steel wardrobe was built so that every shirt could be blasted by a germicidal lamp. For new, read old, because MatchWornShirt sells precisely what the company’s name suggests: kits that have been stuck to the bodies of professional athletes. Want the jersey Son Heung-min pulled on against Manchester United in the Europa League final? You can have it, if you beat the current auction price of £22,000. The very shirt Cole Palmer had on when he scored four first-half goals against Brighton last season? That went for £34,000. Continue reading...

Cristiano Ronaldo got the winner after Francisco Conceição’s wonder strike had cancelled out Florian Wirtz’s header in Munich “Will Cristiano Ronaldo leave Al-Nassr at the end of the month and sign with Inter Miami?” asks Kurt Perleberg. As wild as that may sound, none other than Gianni Infantino himself has suggested Ronaldo wants to play in next month’s Club World Cup, which Al-Nassr failed to qualify for. Whether he ends up playing alongside Lionel Messi in the 305, we’ll have to wait and see. 6 mins: Neto gets more joy up against Germany’s back three, galloping into space and crossing for Ronaldo, whose first touch sets up a shot at goal … which is just too close to Ter Stegen. A decent opening for each side in the opening minutes. Continue reading...

The Portuguese’s Al-Nassr chapter could end without silverware but whispers of a Club World Cup cameo means his Saudi Pro League story is far from over For a social media post described around the world as “cryptic”, it doesn’t seem all that hard to decipher. Minutes after Al-Nassr’s last game of a disappointing season ended in defeat on Monday, Cristiano Ronaldo – who had previously said that he was happy to finish his career in Saudi Arabia – posted on social media. “This chapter is over. The story? Still being written. Grateful to all.” The biggest star in the Saudi Pro League (SPL) looks to be on his way out of Riyadh after two and a half years of personal milestones but no major trophy with Al-Nassr. With the Yellows no closer to a first title since 2019 than when he joined in December 2022 and no place in Asia’s Champions League next season, the 40-year-old may not, as the club had long expected, extend his contract – which ends on 30 June – for another year. Continue reading...

A partnership between the world’s best man-manager and the Seleção will be fun – and potentially glorious The year is 2026 and Carlo Ancelotti is recreating a famous Real Madrid photo. Once more he finds himself on an open-top bus celebrating a landmark victory in sunglasses while smoking a cigar, accompanied by a smiling Rodrygo, Vinicius Junior and Éder Militão. David Alaba is missing and there are confusing new additions, such as Casemiro and Raphinha. Pan out and we realise we’re nowhere near the Cibeles Fountain in Madrid but are instead on Avenida Atlântica by Copacabana beach. Yellow and green confetti fills the sky and Neymar is showing off a record-extending sixth World Cup to an adoring crowd. He’s finally won them over for delivering the hexa, something expected of him since he rose to prominence as a spiky-haired Santos prodigy at the turn of the 2010s, and they have fallen in love with the Seleção again. Continue reading...

Real Madrid head coach to start Seleção job on 26 May Brazilian FA hails ‘the coming together of two icons’ Carlo Ancelotti has been confirmed as the next manager of the Brazil national team. The Brazilian football confederation (CBF) has announced that Real Madrid’s Italian head coach, one of the most successful managers in the history of European club football, will take up the position from 26 May. The appointment had been widely predicted, with it also expected the 65-year-old would be leaving his post at the Bernabéu at the end of the Spanish domestic season. Continue reading...

The two best players of their generation suffered same-day disappointments that show the game is starting to move on Not long ago, the results might have been seismic. Or at the very least, worthy of an eyebrows-raised remark. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, the two leading lights of their generation, the dominant on-field forces for most of this century, both going out of continental competition in the semi-finals? Both in upsets? On the same day? On Wednesday, it actually happened. Messi’s Inter Miami fell to Vancouver 5-1 on aggregate in the Concacaf Champions Cup, and Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr lost 3-2 to Kawasaki Frontale in the AFC Champions League Elite at a nominally neutral site in Saudi Arabia. Continue reading...

Backed by same force as Newcastle, Neom’s promotion signals era of spending in futuristic city that is yet to exist Europe’s biggest clubs may not pay much attention to Saudi Arabia’s second division, but a new and curious force in the international transfer market is emerging from that league. Neom Sports Club (SC) have not only never played a top tier game before but also represent a city that does not yet exist. Neom won promotion to the Saudi Pro League last week and will, from next season, take their place alongside the so-called ‘Big Four’: Al-Hilal and Al-Nassr of Riyadh, and Jeddah giants Al-Ittihad and Al-Ahli. This group, home to Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Riyad Mahrez, are to become the ‘Big Five’. That is because Neom SC belong to the planned futuristic urban area of Neom, backed by the Public Investment Fund behind the aforementioned quartet, as well as Newcastle. Continue reading...

Yokohama F.Marinos again put their faith in an Australian coach ahead of an Asian Champions League quarter-final with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr Ange Postecoglou looks a little frazzled these days but may find some comfort in watching one of his old clubs play on Saturday evening (Sunday 5.30 AEST) and contemplating his Japanese legacy. Yokohama F.Marinos meet Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr in an Asian Champions League Elite quarter-final with Patrick Kisnorbo is in charge. The 44-year-old is the fourth Australian to occupy the Yokohama hotseat since Postecoglou left for Celtic in 2021 after three years in Japan that must seem happier by the week. Rose-tinted glasses can be forgiven in light of Tottenham Hotspur’s current woes. For all the talk about second-season trophies, there should be more about how Postecoglou – in his first J.League campaign with Yokohama in 2018, was saved from relegation only by goal difference. Yokohama were, of course, the second-highest scorers in the league, with just one goal fewer than the champions, in what proved to be the platform for the title-winning season that came next. Continue reading...

The finishes are still flowing for Al-Nassr but, at 40, his future for club and country is under increasing scrutiny On Saturday, Cristiano Ronaldo can take a big step towards a first major trophy since moving to Saudi Arabia but the quarter-final of the Asian Champions League against Yokohama F Marinos also offers a chance to take a smaller stride towards an unprecedented personal milestone: 1,000 first-class goals. Pelé scored plenty but claims of 1,279, recognised by the Guinness World Records, included unofficial and exhibition games and perhaps, wondered Diego Maradona, backyard games against his nephews. The stats site RSSSF credits the Brazilian with a total of 778. Continue reading...