Holy hell. Cristiano Ronaldo is apparently being offered approximately $120 million PER YEAR to play from some random club in the Saudi league for the next three years.

Although top flight players (Beckham, Pele, maybe Messi) going to second rate leagues for a paycheck at the end of their careers is nothing new, this precedent could break the whole economic model of the game.

It's like the Mets just handing Aaron Judge a 1.5 billion dollar contract or something.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/soccer-transfers/story/4820137/ronaldo-offered-300m+-deal-from-saudi-arabia-sources

Cristiano Ronaldo is “close” to signing a deal with Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr worth $207.3 million PER YEAR, per @marca.

Over 2.5 years, it’d be the highest AAV of any athlete's contract ever — topping Messi's previous record by nearly $40 million. pic.twitter.com/Fw9A7uib1l

— Front Office Sports (@FOS) November 30, 2022

Gonna need to sell a lot of jerseys.

I read on the twitters that the deal is contingent on him signing away his likeness/marketing rights.

If so, it's gonna be the individual salary equivalent of a Barca lever. Guaranteed money now, guaranteed losses later.

deadbq03 said:

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I read on the twitters that the deal is contingent on him signing away his likeness/marketing rights.

If so, it's gonna be the individual salary equivalent of a Barca lever. Guaranteed money now, guaranteed losses later.

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It would be better for sport if the Saudis were, in fact, respecting economic principles on some level in making these deals. I'm not a golf guy, but as nearly as I can tell the LIV Tour operates as a public image campaign devoid of any economic consequences: we'll spend a whole bunch of money to buy as many top players as we can, and we don't care if it makes any money now, or ever.

Throwing an operator like that into the mix could sink European club football, where even the most successful clubs (e.g., Barca, Juventus) are apparently losing money hand over fist. The top Premier League sides appear, on the surface, to be relatively immune to these pressures at present, but every structure has a breaking point (unless you've got an owner with functionally infinite wealth who is willing to spend anything on their toy).

Renaldo's new agent

He should just come to the USA and face off agains Messi and Miami.

the Chinese super league was paying exorbitant amounts of money a few years ago and lured a couple of European stars, IIRC, and they all faded out. We'll see how this works out for CR7. The player will get a lot richer, which he obviously wants to do, and that domestic league will generate a lot of local and younger interest that might be good for the sport in that country. However, the player is essentially conceding his relevancy in the world for that money and won't ever be fit for his national team ever again.

if the money was close, he'd certainly go play in the US. The money has to be insane to go live in RSA for 2-3 years, and obviously they have plenty of money.

boogieman said:

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He should just come to the USA and face off agains Messi and Miami.

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How great would that be for the MLS. Good way to keep local talent from going overseas.

Isn't this basically what Drogba did on a smaller scale?

If someone says 200 million, your first word is yes.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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If someone says 200 million, your first word is yes.

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Unless you're Patrick Mahomes.

oh no said:

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the Chinese super league was paying exorbitant amounts of money a few years ago and lured a couple of European stars, IIRC, and they all faded out. We'll see how this works out for CR7. The player will get a lot richer, which he obviously wants to do, and that domestic league will generate a lot of local and younger interest that might be good for the sport in that country. However, the player is essentially conceding his relevancy in the world for that money and won't ever be fit for his national team ever again.

if the money was close, he'd certainly go play in the US. The money has to be insane to go live in RSA for 2-3 years, and obviously they have plenty of money.

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It's still for sure a retirement move. Make bank and take it easy on the body.

This World Cup is his last hoorah for Portugal. He definitely isn't gonna be at WC 2026 unless it's super sub role.

Well, it appears to be decision time for RoRo. If he wants the big bucks, he's going to have to get it in Saudi Arabia. Not sure even MLS would want to deal with his nonsense at this point (and they definitely aren't giving him 200 million).

I don't think any good team let alone great team in Europe will sign him even if he slashed his wage demands by 90%. Why would you risk it? But the catch is that accepting the Saudi bid effectively proves all his "haters" over the last year or two right. He doesn't need the money. He might just straight up retire for image reasons.