Cristiano Ronaldo was welcomed at Al Nassr by Cameroon striker Vincent Aboubakar in the most savage manner there could have been. The Portugal captain has signed a blockbuster deal with the Saudi side, which will now make him the highest earning athlete ever. Ronaldo left Manchester United back in November last year, as a result of his controversial and explosive interview with Piers Morgan wherein he openly slammed the club and manager Erik ten Hag.
However, as claimed by the 37-year-old himself, there was no shortage of offers for him from across Europe, as well as America, Australia, Brazil and the Middle-East. But Ronaldo revealed that he “gave his word” to Al Nassr and that found their project “very inspiring”. On the other hand, the rumours of the Saudi club trying to push out Aboubakar in order to accommodate Cristiano Ronaldo started catching fire, as the Cameroon striker then himself blew the lid.
Aboubakar claims ‘he always thought Messi was better than Cristiano Ronaldo’
Al Nassr have come under fire from all directions, after their rapacious move of terminating Aboubakar’s contract to register Cristiano Ronaldo came to light. While Ronaldo completed his €200m-per-year move to Al Nassr, the club were still unable to register him given their quota for accommodating foreign players was up. As a result, the Saudi side started looking for a scapegoat to sacrifice, as Uzbek winger Jaloliddin Masharipov was first being considered to be let gone.
However, as latest reports from talkSPORT confirmed Al Nassr have right away terminated Aboubakar’s contract in order ease Ronaldo’s registration. The move has not gone down well with the Cameroon striker, who will now have to look for a new club in the middle of the season. But Al Nassr’s decision came out of the blue, as it is being understood that it were the 30-year-old’s comments over Ronaldo’s rivalry with Messi which sealed his fate. Aboubakar had said:
“I always thought that Messi was better than Ronaldo, but after I had practice with him, I knew I was right.”
This was an absolute audacious stunt by Aboubakar, who had just trained with his new teammate Ronaldo at Al Nassr. Moreover, the comments were very badly timed since both the greats had contrasting World Cup campaigns in Qatar last month. Cristiano endured a tough tournament with Portugal, where he had a fallout with manager Fernando Santos, who then decided to bench the captain for both of their knockout games.
And in a shocker to the EURO 2016 champions, they were knocked out of the quarterfinals by minnows Morocco as Ronaldo came on in the 51st minute, but was unable to help his country stage a comeback from 1-0 down. On the other hand, he had to endure the pain of watching his fiercest rival Lionel Messi lift the World Cup and cement his legacy as arguably the greatest player of all time.
Ronaldo will now be gearing up for his Al Nassr debut, after the unpleasant departure of Aboubakar who had joined the club in the summer of 2021 from Besiktas. However, according to multiple reports, the greatest irony could be witnessed as Ronaldo’s former side Manchester United are looking to replace the five-time Ballon d’Or winner with now free agent Vincent Aboubakar. Although there have been no concrete talks as of now between the two parties, United are still keen on exploring the option.