It isn't often that you see the term 'free-agent' being associated with Cristiano Ronaldo. The Portuguese forward is presently without a club, having seen his contract at Manchester United being terminated prematurely, although there was a mutual agreement between the player and the club to do so. But, as Ronaldo continues to wait before his next destination is decided, he has reportedly started to train at the Real Madrid sporting center. But, that doesn't mean Ronaldo is close to re-joining the Spanish giants.
Transfer-specialist Italian journalist, Fabrizio Romano, confirmed that Ronaldo has been training at the Real Madrid sports center to remain in top physical shape.
"Cristiano Ronaldo has trained at Real Madrid sporting center Valdebebas in the last hours - on a separated pitch #Ronaldo As revealed by @relevo/@hugocerezo, Cristiano's just working there to keep his form thanks to great relationship with the club, waiting for new chapter," he tweeted.
So far, only a concrete offer from Saudia Arabia club Al Nassr has been tabled in front of Ronaldo but the 37-year-old is probably holding on for a contract from a top European club. Ronaldo remains keen on playing at the top level of European football for a few more years and possibly look to win a few more titles.
As far as Al Nassr are concerned, the club's manager Rudi Garcia has opened up on the subject. The French manager was quoted as saying by Daily Mail to AS: "I think that any coach would be delighted to train a great star like Cristiano and already in November 2021 I was very close to going to United.
"They chose Ralf Rangnick, but I met twice with John Murtough and Darren Fletcher [United's director of football and technical director respectively].
"I came very close to coaching this club and was very motivated to go, who wouldn't be motivated to coach United? Any coach. United's simple interest has allowed me to be sure of my ambitions in the future.
"I have always thought that the great players are the easiest to manage because they are very intelligent, I verified this with Francesco Totti at Roma."
Ronaldo's campaign at the FIFA World Cup 2022 came to an end in the quarter-final stage after his team Portugal was eliminated by Morocco.