Football Daily | Cristiano Ronaldo and an argument at Al-Nassr that doesn’t make sense

2 hours ago 1

STRIKER?

For a man who is raging against the dying of the light, Cristiano Ronaldo is doing a good job of throwing a blanket over the fire. And by throwing a blanket, what Football Daily really means to say is throwing a hissy fit, a wobbly, a tantrum. The legendary footballer, reduced to something of a tap-in artist these days in a league of – at best – questionable quality, seemingly threw his toys out of his Bugatti on Sunday after deciding that not enough investment has been made in his club, Al-Nassr, in comparison to the other Saudi ones.

Ronaldo is reportedly unhappy because he feels Al-Ahli, Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal, the three other clubs majority owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF, the state-owned organisation funding much of Saudi sport) have received more financial backing than Al-Nassr. Such is the ferocity of the latest huff by Ronaldo that the Portuguese, who turns 41 on Thursday, apparently boycotted Monday’s match against local rivals Al-Ryadh as he attempts to strongarm his bosses. This was something of a disappointment for Al-Nassr and their fans, to be without their captain, leader, legend and top scorer for the crucial derby. “His absence is not related to any physical issue nor to workload or fitness management,” parped Fabrizio Romano, seemingly a man in the know.

Football Daily can unfortunately see a few flaws in Ronaldo’s apparent arguments. Firstly, plenty of money has already been spent by PIF on Al-Nassr. This season only one PIF club (Al-Hilal) has spent more than Al-Nassr, who have signed some of Europe’s best players in Mohamed Simakan (from RB Leipzig, £30m), João Félix (from Chelsea, £26m) and Kingsley Coman (from Bayern Munich for £21.5m), all arriving to the tune of nearly £100m.

Secondly, Ronaldo might be part of the problem, with his weekly tax-free wage of £3.74m four times greater than the next-best paid player in the Saudi Pro League, Al-Ahli’s Riyad Mahrez (who takes home a paltry £870k every seven days). Ronaldo’s apparent stance also seems somewhat self-defeating. Not only is he making his first Saudi Pro League title less likely, but by not playing he would also be doing himself out of another opportunity to edge towards his stated aim of 1,000 career goals. Ronaldo is currently stuck on 961 goals as he chases what would be an historic milestone. Those 39 goals aren’t going to score themselves, although in fairness PIF doesn’t know exactly what Ronaldo’s next set of demands are going to be.

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QUOTE OF THE DAY

“I know we won too much and the people don’t want us to win but the referee has to be neutral and for me honestly, it’s not fair” – yep, that whistling sound you can hear is probably an FA charge flying through the post in the direction of the Etihad Stadium after Rodri’s rant against referees following the decision to allow Dominic Solanke’s first goal in Sunday’s 2-2 draw at Spurs.

Timo Werner is still only 29! Was he born on a leap day or something? To borrow from football cliches, when we talk of Peter Pan footballers, it is usually because they are 35 or something like that, and still full of running. A James Milner type. Timo seems like he should be 37 and in Saudi Arabia or the USA USA USA, not still 29 and at his theoretical peak … oh, he is in the USA USA USA. Someone check his birth certificate!” – Matt Atkinson.

Although Arsène Wenger certainly does not lack creativity when it comes to proposing changes to the rules of the game (see ‘daylight’ for example), I’d like to pose an idea to him: let’s reduce the game time of every match to one half of 45 minutes. This solves the whole problem of injuries due to fixture congestion, probably maximises effective playing time, and – most importantly – gives my favourite team Spurs a chance at actually winning games” – Yannick Woudstra.

If you have any, please send letters to [email protected]. Today’s prizeless letter o’ the day winner is … Yannick Woudstra. Terms and conditions for our competitions, when we run them, are here.