No Newcastle clause in Cristiano Ronaldo deal

Cris­tiano Ronal­do has expired his two-and-a-half-year con­tract at Al Nasr, with Sau­di Ara­bi­an club offi­cials say­ing the clause allow­ing Ronal­do to join New­cas­tle Unit­ed on loan if they qual­i­fy for the Cham­pi­ons League next sea­son is “a state­ment”. It’s not true,” they told ESPN.

Ronal­do, who turns 38 on 5 Feb­ru­ary, will make his offi­cial debut as an Al Nasr play­er at the club’s Mir­sur Park sta­di­um on Tues­day at 7pm local time.

The Por­tuguese cap­tain has mutu­al­ly ter­mi­nat­ed his con­tract with Man­ches­ter Unit­ed after a series of dis­ci­pli­nary issues at the club, sign­ing a $75 mil­lion annu­al deal to become foot­bal­l’s high­est-paid player.

Ronal­do, who had hoped to move to a team that will play in the Cham­pi­ons League this sum­mer, has insert­ed a clause in his con­tract that would allow him to move to New­cas­tle, which is owned by Sau­di Ara­bi­a’s Pub­lic Invest­ment Fund (PIF). It was report­ed in Spain that he had agreed to play for Nasr.

It also incor­rect­ly stat­ed that Al-Nassr was also owned by the PIF.

New­cas­tle offi­cials have denied the club have the option to sign Ronal­do if they qual­i­fy for the Cham­pi­ons League, while Al Nasr offi­cials say the rumors are ‘all lies’ on ESPN.

Al Nasr are due to take on Al Tayi at home on Thurs­day, but sources say Ronal­do’s debut is like­ly to be away to Riyadh rivals Al Shabaab on Thursday.