Three days after a gala match against Paris SG led by Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappé, Cristiano Ronaldo will debut on Sunday in the Saudi Arabian championship, new stage in the strategy of international recognition of the rich oil monarchy through sport.
Accustomed to playing in front of 80,000 spectators at Old Trafford and in an even bigger stadium at Real Madrid, Ronaldo will discover his fifth championship in a much more intimate setting: Riyadh’s Mrsool Park, a 25,000-seat stadium where his new team Al-Nassr will take on Al-Ettifaq.
The atmosphere of the building, much less noisy than in Europe, contrasts with the ambition of Saudi Arabiawho thinks big with the signature of the five times Ballon d’Or.
He already demonstrated it on Thursday in style, with the friendly between PSG and a selection of footballers who play in the country, among which is now Cristiano Ronaldo. The French champions won the match 5-4, in front of 60,000 spectators.
Podium, medal, trophy and even a great fireworks display: the organization did everything possible to make us forget that it was a friendly and the purely anecdotal sporting value of this gala match.
– “Final objective”, the OG –
“It’s a great game but it’s nothing compared to what will happen with Vision 2030,” Turki Al-Sheikh congratulated himself.head of the General Entertainment Authority, referring to Saudi Arabia’s ambitious development plan.
“My leader is going to surprise the Saudis with still many things,” Al-Sheikh added, known in Spain for being the owner of the Unión Deportiva Almería, in reference to the crown prince Mohammed ben Salmane, de facto at the reins of the country. “We are ready to satisfy his requests at all times. But what is to come is even bigger.”
Because the world’s leading crude oil exporter doesn’t want to stop there. The country, where the Dakar rally-raid just finished, it seeks to organize a soccer World Cup like its Qatari neighbor did, but also summer and even winter Olympic Games, despite the strong temperatures in the region.
Saudi Arabia is already in talks to present a common candidacy to host the 2030 World Cup alongside Egypt and Greece, while last year its sports minister told AFP that hosting the Olympics was “the ultimate goal.”
The arrival of Cristiano Ronaldo, soccer star of the 21st century, with a contract with Al-Nassr Worth €200m for two and a half years, according to a source close to the club, he fully integrates with this unbridled ambition.
The Portuguese star has signed another contract of 200 million euros also to promote the Saudi candidacy for the organization of the 2030 World Cup, according to the same source.
Meanwhile, CR7 launches a new challenge in his career, in the anonymity of this Saudi championship without big names or highly mediated teams, in a team that currently occupies the second position in the middle of the season.
– “Softpower” –
Can the man with the five Ballon d’Ors single-handedly shed light on local football in the long term?
“The transfer of Ronaldo is only the beginning”, assesses Danyel Reiche, Professor at Georgetown University in Qatar. “Whether Messi goes to Saudi Arabia or not, we will see more superstars settling in,” this specialist in sports diplomacy told AFP.
According to Reiche, “international attention” is going to intensify now, as happened in Qatar, on different issues in Saudi Arabia such as the rights of women, migrant workers or people from the LGBTQ community.
According to the professor, Thursday’s game between the two living soccer legends sent a “very strong message.” “It’s also a way of saying, ‘Look how we’re changing.'”
“They understand that they cannot count on military and political power, but that they have to have ‘soft power,'” he remarks.
