Al Hilal’s proposal for Cristiano fell through due to the sanction

In the end, Cristiano Ronaldo didn’t leave Manchester United in the last transfer window. The Portuguese star was looking to join a new club with the hope of being involved in the Champions League. However, an offer failed to materialise. His agent Jorge Mendes offered him to clubs in all the big leagues, but there was no takers. In the meantime, he did receive other offers, but none that particularly interested him - including one from Saudi Arabia. Al Hilal, one of the most important clubs in the country, presented him with an attractive proposal - a two-season contract for 242 million euros. But Cristiano declined. Al Hilal officials have now explained the details of the negotiation.

Al-Hilal president Fahad ben Nafel, gave details of the deal on the YouTube channel Thamanya: “Yes, we negotiated with Ronaldo. The problem was never about money. Al-Hilal is capable of signing any star in the world, the problem was in the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport that prevented us from signing players. We did not stop negotiating with footballers despite the sanction and we tried to delay entering the final stage of the negotiations until the sanction was lifted”.

In the end bringing Christiano to Saudi Arabi was not possible. Al Hilal was suspended from signing players for two market windows. In May, the Saudi club was sanctioned due to the Mohamed Kanno case. The player had incurred, due to the intervention of Al Hilal, in the duplication of contracts and Al Hilal was sanctioned for it.