Real Madrid among clubs considered to play against Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr in club friendly – Reports
Discussions are reportedly in the offing with Cristiano Ronaldo’s Al-Nassr to play a friendly match in the upcoming Riyadh season. Real Madrid are one of the clubs nominated to play against the Saudi Pro League side. The 2024 Riyadh season will commence on October 12 and run through to 2025, and it will incorporate a lot of sporting events.
Cristiano Ronaldo had played for Real Madrid from 2009 to 2018 before leaving for Juventus. He eventually joined Al-Nassr in late 2022 after leaving Manchester United.
According to journalist Abdulaziz Al-Osaimi, Turki Al-Sheikh, chairman of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority, will discuss with Al-Nassr a potential friendly match in the upcoming Riyadh season. He has nominated Real Madrid as one of the clubs they will play against.
Earlier this year, MARCA reported that a potential match between Cristiano Ronaldo's Al-Nassr and Real Madrid would coincide with the inauguration of the new Santiago Bernabéu Stadium.
This inauguration is anticipated to take place between the end of the current season and 2025. The aforementioned source also indicated that Real Madrid President Florentino Pérez was keen to facilitate this match. This is because he wanted to reunite Kylian Mbappé, who had an agreement with Los Blancos at the time, with his idol, Cristiano Ronaldo.
Initial plans for a match during the stadium's inauguration may have been scaled back. However, discussions led by Turki Al-Sheikh with Al-Nassr about a friendly match with Real Madrid could revive the possibility of this highly anticipated clash.
Cristiano Ronaldo accused of sending voice message to former Real Madrid player who tried to ridicule him
Former Real Madrid star Antonio Cassano claims Cristiano Ronaldo sent him a voice note, listing all the trophies he won. It comes after the Italian excluded him from his all-time top 10 footballers list.
In a recent report, Cassano claimed that Ronaldo doesn’t know how to play football and that he is only obsessed with scoring goals. The Italian forward also went on to name his five best players in football history as he excluded Ronaldo, with Ronaldo Nazario coming first.
Speaking to The BSMT podcast, Cassano said he received a text message from a Spanish number showing his list of trophies and accusing him of ‘disrespect’.
"I said Ronaldo is No1, the Brazilian. Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t make my top five, or even top ten, because for me the quality of a player is another thing," Cassano told BSMT podcast (via Goal).
"Next thing, I finish the work I was doing and I get a text message from a +34 number, that’s Spain. It’s a list of all the trophies, goals and statistics. Then he sends me a voice note, telling me, ‘You disrespected me, don’t do anything like that again. You only scored 150 goals, you only won four trophies.’ Perfect.
He added:
“So I answer him. I say, ‘Dear Cristiano, listen to me. You think I disrespected you, I just don’t like you as a player. What’s the problem?’ He went to the trouble of messaging me, imagine.”
Cassano and Ronaldo once plied their trade at Real Madrid. The former was at Los Blancos from 2006 to 2008, while the latter played at the Spanish capital from 2009 to 2018.