Cristiano Ronaldo ‘agrees £173m-a-year deal’ with Saudi club

Ronaldo is 'close to signing'

Cristiano Ronaldo is reportedly close to finding himself a new club following his departure from Manchester United earlier this month. The 37-year-old's contract at United was terminated by mutual consent after his explosive interview with Piers Morgan a week before the start of the World Cup. He has been linked with a number of different clubs in the time since, but is now being strongly linked with an insanely lucrative move to Saudi Arabia. Marca report that a move to Al Nassr is close, which would see the Portuguese ink a two-and-a-half-year deal worth a staggering £172.9million per year. The same report suggests Ronaldo's preference was to remain in Europe, but after a lack of offers, he is open to moving to a less competitive league. Al Nassr's offer - obviously - is far greater than anything likely to be tabled by clubs in Europe or Major League Soccer, which some speculated may have been a possible next step for him. Frenchman Rudi Garcia is the current manager of Al Nassr, having previously been in charge at Roma, Marseille and Lyon. Should Ronaldo make the move, he will be able to count Cameroon's World Cup star Vincent Aboubakar and former Arsenal goalkeeper David Ospina as teammates.

Ronaldo denied World Cup goal

Earlier in the week, Ronaldo played for Portugal as they beat Uruguay to reach the knockout stage of the World Cup. After an eventful win over Ghana in their opener, Portugal defeated the South American team 2-0, with both goals coming from Bruno Fernandes. Ronaldo had tried to claim Fernandes' first goal for himself, after he came extremely close to touching the ball with his head as it made its way into the goal. FIFA, however, have since released a statement confirming Ronaldo made no contact with the ball. More stories:

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