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July 17, 2025
It's been roughly 3 years since Ronaldo decided to embrace a new chapter in his football career and play in Saudi Arabia. With the Portuguese arrival, many eyes started looking to Saudi football in a different way, which, at the end of the day, was precisely why Ronaldo was brought to Al Nassr...
With speculation about his future, including the possibility of playing in the 2025 Club World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo signed a new contract with Al-Nassr in June. The new deal will keep the Portuguese international at the club for a further two years having joined Al-Nassr from Manchester United in 2022. The move to Saudi Arabia was huge news in the footballing world, but has Ronaldo’s time in the country increased interest in the Saudi Pro League?
Cristiano Ronaldo - Just different!
Having joined Al-Nassr halfway through the 2022/23 season, Ronaldo only visited 8 of the teams in the Saudi Pro League as an away player. In all but one of those games, the attendance was at capacity for the stadium or close to being the highest attendance of the season for those teams. The only match where this did not happen was the game at Al-Hilal, one of the biggest clubs in Asia. It was a midweek game and the attendance, despite not being close to the largest for that season, was above the average.
When playing at home for Al-Nassr, the appearance of Ronaldo increased attendances by 20% and there was even a 3% increase in attendance for the matches not involving Ronaldo. So, from a purely fan attendance perspective, Ronaldo’s arrival at Al-Nassr increased interest in the Saudi Pro League.
With Ronaldo having played in the second half of the 2022/23 campaign, would we see an increased interest in the Saudi Pro League from a player perspective? Would other top players be prepared to roll the dice like you can when playing Dice Club at SpinBit casino and join Ronaldo in Saudi Arabia?
The answer was a resounding yes and many top players made the move to Saudi Arabia. Riyad Mahrez, Roberto Firmino, Fabinho, Karim Benzema, N'Golo Kanté, Sadio Mané, Marcelo Brozović, Aymeric Laporte, Yannick Carrasco, and Neymar are just some of the big name players to move to the Saudi Pro League for the 2023/24 season. All these players were coming to the latter stages of their careers and maybe the money on offer played a factor in their decision making but Ronaldo certainly paved the way for their moves.
Players in their prime also moved from Europe to play in Saudi Arabia, including Rúben Neves, Sergej Milinković-Savić, Moussa Dembélé, Gabri Veiga, Franck Kessié, and Jota. The Saudi Pro League was adding European based players who were at the pinnacle of their powers, and this did not happen before the arrival of Ronaldo.
In addition to the increase in attendance at stadiums in Saudi Arabia, new deals were made for television rights to the Saudi Pro League for the 2023/24 season. DAZN was the main rights holder to show the Saudi Pro League live to over 100 territories, including the UK, Germany, and Canada. The league was also shown on major sports channels in Portugal, Spain, and France.
There can be no doubt that Ronaldo’s arrival in Saudi Arabia increased the popularity of the league and it will be interesting to see if that continues during his next two years at Al-Nassr.
Cristiano Ronaldo next game for Al Nassr is on August 19, against Al Ittihad, for the Saudi Super Cup. You can watch Al Nassr vs Al Ittihad, Liverpool vs AC Milan, Vissel Kobe vs Barcelona, Manchester United vs Leeds, Reading vs Tottenham and Arsenal vs AC Milan, all matches provided from our live football game pages.
Al Nassr next game:
Al Nassr vs Al Ittihad kick-off time (19-08-2025):
Beijing (China) | UTC/GMT+7: 20:00
India (New Delhi) | UTC/GMT+4.30: 17:30
Saudi Arabia (Riyadh) | UTC/GMT+2: 15:00
Spain (Madrid) | UTC/GMT+1: 14:00
Portugal and England (Lisbon/London) | UTC/GMT+0: 13:00
Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) | UTC/GMT-3: 10:00
New York (United States) | UTC/GMT-4: 09:00
Los Angeles (United States) | UTC/GMT-7: 06:00
Sources: ronaldo7.net / sportbible.com / sportcal.com
