Cristiano Ronaldo, one of the greatest footballers ever, is without a club after a bitter divorce with Manchester United. The second stint at the Premier League giants went sour for Ronaldo after a tumultuous season and an explosive TV interview where he criticised the club. There haven't been many clubs that the Portuguese has been linked to since leaving the Red Devils. However, a whopping 200 million Euros per year salary offer has reportedly come from Saudi Arabia club Al Nassr. However, according to a report, the 37-year-old forward has finally broken the silence on the matter.
"No, that's not true - not true", Ronaldo was quoted as saying by football journalist Fabrizio Romano on whether the deal with Al Nassr was already done.
Now, Al Nassr manager Rudi Garcia has opened up on the issue. 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."
Garcia has earlier coached teams like Lille, Roma, Marseille and Lyon. Meanwhile, Ronaldo's Portugal are out of the FIFA World CUp. They lost to Morocco in the quarter-finals.