Cristiano Ronaldo surprised the footballing world last week by signing for Al-Nassr, yet it hasn’t taken long for the Portuguese striker’s new manager, Rudi Garcia, to take a subtle dig at the superstar.
As per the Mirror, the French coach was asked about the signing of Ronaldo after Al-Nassr’s win against Al-Khaleej, to which Garcia joked that he first asked if Lionel Messi was available straight after the Argentine attacker’s 2022 FIFA World Cup triumph.
Who is Al-Nassr’s manager?
Name: Rudi Garcia
Age: 58
Nationality: French
Date of birth: 20th February 1964
Club: Al-Nassr
Salary: £10,000,000-a-year
Garcia might be a name familiar to some English football fans. The 58-year-old is best remembered for managing LOSC Lille to the 2011 Ligue 1 title where a young Eden Hazard lit up French football to bring Les Dogues their first league win in over 55 years.
Spells at AS Roma and more recently Olympique Lyonnais have kept Garcia in the European limelight. Yet since June 2022, the French coach has been in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr, where the former Ligue 1 manager now finds himself coaching Ronaldo.
Why has Ronaldo signed for Al-Nassr?
Ronaldo was released by Manchester United in the midst of the World Cup following the attacker’s explosive interview with Piers Morgan. And whilst there’s no denying the striker still has some quality about him, it became clear very soon after the attacker’s exit from Old Trafford that a top European side wasn’t coming in for him.
With the forward one of the highest-paid athletes in all of sports, it would have had to take a monstrous offer to lure Ronaldo away from Europe, and that’s what Al-Nassr managed to do, with the Saudi Arabia side reportedly paying the veteran an incredible £172m-a-year as per Al Ekhbariya.
Indeed, Ronaldo’s time in Europe has come to a disappointing end for many, yet for Al-Nassr manager Garcia, the Frenchman might never have expected to be coaching a player as legendary as the Portuguese international.
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