The Saudi Pro League has slowly been growing in stature since Cristiano Ronaldo joined Al Nassr in 2022 and the ex-Manchester United forward has doubled down on his claim the division has overtaken Ligue 1
Cristiano Ronaldo has once again savaged Ligue 1 as he stood by his claim that the Saudi Pro League is a superior division.
Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr in 2022 and has since led a revolution of high profile of top level players who have flocked to the Middle East.
Karim Benzema, N’Golo Kante, Neymar and Ruben Neves are just some of the biggest names who have decided to join the Saudi top flight.
Officials have been attempting to lure the best talent in the world to help the Saudi Pro League compete with some one the best leagues in Europe, but Ronaldo believes it is already a better league than the French Ligue 1.
At the start of this year Ronaldo said the French league had only “two or three teams” who were at a good level and insisted the Saudi Pro League was in better shape. Now he has doubled down on that claim, saying Ligue 1 clubs were all “finished” apart from PSG.
“Saudi League is better than Ligue 1, of course,” he told the Globe Soccer Awards. “France only has PSG . The rest are finished. Try to sprint in 38, 39, 40 degree weather and see.”
He previously said: “To be honest I think the Saudi League is not worse than French league, in my opinion.
“In [the] French league I think you have two, three teams with a good level. In Saudi now I think it’s more competitive. They can say whatever they want, it’s just my opinion and I played there one year so I know what I’m talking about. But I think right now we are better than [the] French league, we still improve.”
Ronaldo – who was named as the best player in the Middle Easy at the awards ceremony – gave a lengthy interview giving his thoughts from Manchester United to the Ballon d’Or, before revealing he is planning to buy a football club.
The 39-year-old shows no signs of retiring any time soon but gave a hint to his future and said he wanted to go down the David Beckham path by becoming a club owner. He said: “I’m not a coach. I’m never going to be a coach, president of the club? No. Maybe owner of the club.”
Ronaldo already claimed he would be able to fix the mess at Manchester United if he were the owner. “If I will be the owner of the club, I will make the things clear and adjust what I think is bad there,” he said.
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