Cristiano Ronaldo's Future in Saudi Arabia: No Return to Europe
Cristiano Ronaldo’s future has been argued over ever since he swapped Manchester for Riyadh, but one former team-mate in the Gulf is convinced of one thing: Europe is not calling him back.
The Portuguese superstar joined Al-Nassr in early 2023 after his Manchester United contract was terminated on the eve of the 2022 World Cup. He arrived in Saudi Arabia on the most lucrative deal in world football, blazing a trail that Karim Benzema, Sadio Mané and others would soon follow.
The goals have not dried up. Nor has the hunger. Ronaldo has already added two more Golden Boots to his vast collection and remains the face of the Saudi Pro League’s project. Yet even in that privileged position, he showed his teeth in February, taking strike action amid frustration over how funds are allegedly distributed between PIF-controlled clubs.
The stand-off did not last. Ronaldo returned, Al-Nassr’s title charge resumed, and the 39-year-old is under contract until the summer of 2027. If he sees that deal out, he will be 41 when it ends. Retirement still lurks somewhere on the horizon, but nobody can quite pinpoint where.
One theory keeps resurfacing: a romantic final chapter at Sporting, the club where it all began. Paul-José M’Poku, who knows the region well after spells in Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia and now features in Baller League UK with Angry Ginge’s Yanited, is not buying it.
“I don't think he will come back to Europe,” M’Poku told GOAL. “And I think there's no point for him to come back to Europe, especially with what he's earning there and how people treat him there.
“When you reach that age, there's things that you don't want anymore. I think he will have a World Cup, probably the last one, and then go back to Saudi. Let's see when he will stop.”
Al-Nassr have every reason to keep him exactly where he is. Ronaldo is their sporting heartbeat and their commercial engine, a No.7 who sells a project as much as he sells shirts. To keep him content, the club are expected to keep stacking big names around him.
One of those could be Mohamed Salah. The Liverpool forward is edging towards the end of his deal at Anfield and, as a potential free agent, sits right in the crosshairs of Saudi ambition.
“I think Mo Salah will probably go to Saudi,” M’Poku said. “I don't know if it's Al-Nassr, but yeah, he will go. But now also the PIF, they're trying to sell the club. So if the owner comes and says, I want to buy Al-Nassr, and this owner buys players, it will be okay.”
The idea of Ronaldo feeding passes into Salah in Riyadh is eye-catching enough. The one fantasy that still dominates message boards, though, is different: Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in the same dressing room.
Messi is locked into a deal with Inter Miami through 2028, fronting MLS Cup winners and the bold American chapter of his own career. With Sir David Beckham among the co-owners, the story almost writes itself: the Manchester United legend who lures both GOATs to the same franchise.
M’Poku doesn’t see it.
“I don't think it will happen,” he said. “And for me, I don't know if it's good to see both of them on the same team, because both of them are big stars and either you have to choose one – you are pro-Messi or you are pro-Ronaldo. I don't think it's good for a club to have both of them.”
That dream pairing, then, looks destined to stay on console screens and in social media edits. What remains very real is the sense that both men still have pages left to write.
Ronaldo and Messi are expected to feature at this summer’s World Cup, still chasing numbers and moments that scarcely feel human. Both are closing in on the almost absurd landmark of 1,000 competitive career goals.
M’Poku will watch from a distance now. The former DR Congo international has stepped away from the grind of the professional game and into the high-tempo, six-a-side world of Baller League at the Copper Box Arena in London, sharing the pitch with creators and ex-pros rather than Champions League rivals.
The spotlight has moved on for him. For Ronaldo, it burns as fiercely as ever in Saudi Arabia – and, if M’Poku is right, that is exactly where it will stay.
