Exploring Cristiano Ronaldo’s decision to stay in Saudi Arabia with Al-Nassr | OneFootball

Cristiano Ronaldo recently made headlines around the world, sparking speculation that he could leave Al-Nassr. Rumours of an appearance at the FIFA Club World Cup followed, but Ronaldo ultimately made the decision to extend his deal with Al-Nassr for another two seasons, keeping him in Saudi Arabia until June 2027. By that time, Ronaldo will be 42 years old, which is long past the retirement age of the average footballer. So what motivated this decision, what does the five-time Ballon d’Or winner have left to achieve in the sport and what might this decision mean for the Portugal national team ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup?

Silverware with Al-Nassr

There are likely many factors behind Cristiano Ronaldo’s decision to stay in Saudi Arabia and re-commit to Al-Nassr. Perhaps the most obvious is the incredible salary he is earning as part of this new deal - rumoured to be €400M per year, which works out at approximately €33.34M per month, or €7.6M per week. Prior to signing his new contract, Ronaldo was already the highest paid athlete in the world for 2025. He has topped Forbes’ rich list for athletes five times in total and, given the increase in his salary, it is likely this will increase to seven times by the end of his career. Yet, there are a number of on-the-field reasons why Ronaldo may have decided to re-sign with Al-Nassr too. Ronaldo has, of course, achieved incredible success over his career, winning three Premier League titles, two La Liga titles, two Serie A titles and five UEFA Champions League medals with Manchester United, Real Madrid and Juventus. When you add his Euro 2016 win and two Nations League triumphs with Portugal to the mix, it is difficult to imagine what is left to achieve. But, despite being by far the most high-profile player in the country, Ronaldo has yet to actually win a Saudi Pro League title. In fact, his time in Saudi Arabia has been marked by a relative lack of silverware by his own extremely high standards, with the 2023 King Salman Club Cup still the only trophy from his time in the Middle East. It may well be that a sense of unfinished business underpinned the decision to stay.

The pursuit of 1,000 goals

Cristiano Ronaldo has also made it clear that he has one major individual target left: officially scoring 1,000 career goals. He is currently 62 goals shy of achieving this staggering feat. No professional player has ever reached this tally in official games. The Brazilian legend, Pele, claimed over 1,000 career goals during his career, but more than 400 of these came in friendly matches and exhibition games. So how realistic is this pursuit of 1,000 goals and has this influenced Ronaldo’s decision to stay in Saudi Arabia? Over his career, betting on Cristiano Ronaldo to score has been a sure-fire way to win money. On almost any given weekend, you could head over to Bety.com, place a bet on Ronaldo to score and have reasonable confidence you will receive a payout. Since moving to Saudi Arabia, his goalscoring stats remain excellent. At the time of writing, following the conclusion of the 2024-25 Saudi Pro League season, Cristiano Ronaldo has played 111 games for Al-Nassr, scoring 99 goals in three seasons. Achieving a similar level of scoring over the next two seasons should net him around 66 goals, which would be more than enough to reach his target of 1,000. Perhaps Ronaldo concluded that scoring 62 goals in Saudi Arabia will be an easier task than scoring the same number of goals in other leagues, especially as he moves further into his 40s.

Father time is undefeated

Cristiano Ronaldo’s career longevity is to be admired and it is well-known throughout football that he takes care of his body more than the vast majority of athletes. Yet, there is an old saying in sports around the world that forever holds true: “Father Time is undefeated”. In other words, age catches up with everyone eventually. Ronaldo is now 40 years old and has made over 1,200 professional appearances. That is a lot of wear and tear on his body. So is time going to catch up with Ronaldo before the end of his contract? Is he still a safe pick when placing a bet? Is your time online going to be better spent playing Bety games rather than backing Ronaldo to score regularly over the next two years? How much does he really have left in the tank at this stage? There are some early signs that Ronaldo’s goalscoring may start to decline slightly. In his first full season with Al-Nassr, he played 31 league games and scored an incredible 35 goals. His second full season saw him play 30 league games and score 25 goals - still a great record by any standard, but a decline of 10 league goals year-on-year. Nevertheless, Ronaldo is still playing for Portugal and recently helped his country to win the Nations League. He is still averaging well over 40 games per season in all competitions and his record for the national team in 2025 is three goals in four appearances. Ronaldo is also still keen to make a record sixth appearance at a World Cup in 2026 and this, combined with his 1,000 goals pursuit, means motivation is not going to be an issue. There is also the reality that while the standard of football in Saudi Arabia has improved significantly in recent years, he is not going to be coming up against the world’s elite defenders every week. This could help to ensure Ronaldo can manage his fitness and achieve his World Cup appearances and career goals targets.

Final thoughts

The rumours about Cristiano Ronaldo leaving Al-Nassr and Saudi Arabia in general disappeared almost as quickly as they appeared. A desire to reach a personal milestone of 1,000 goals, the challenge of winning the Saudi Pro League and the dream of reaching a sixth World Cup with Portugal are all likely to be factors in the decision to stay and the smart money is still on Ronaldo achieving all of those objectives before hanging up his boots for good.