Ronaldo loan move to Al-Hilal 'counter-intuitive'

The chief executive of Saudi Pro League club Al-Hilal says that a loan move for Cristiano Ronaldo before the Club World Cup would have been "completely counter-intuitive" because he played for their "biggest opponent" Al-Nassr.

Al-Hilal were linked with a possible deal for the 40-year-old Portugal forward after Fifa introduced an additional transfer window earlier this month because of the revamped tournament.

Both rival Riyadh clubs are controlled by the country's Public Investment Fund (PIF), and Ronaldo is out of contract at Al-Nassr at the end of June.

But when asked if they came close to a move for the forward, Esteve Calzada told BBC Sport: "We normally don't comment on players' situations, particularly because our name is always put out there, when a player or an agent wants to negotiate a better deal with his club, or is trying to move out.

"It's been a very weird transfer window, it's a very short period of time.

"You don't want to take a decision thinking about this tournament that then you have to carry on with for the next two or three years.

"As much as I respect Ronaldo as a huge player, as we all recognise he is, it's certainly completely counter-intuitive that you bring the biggest player of your biggest opponent to play with you.

"Even more when it's only for three to four weeks.

"We've been trying to see if we can reinforce the team. But some players were with a mindset of 'holidays already', some players were sometimes just asking for too much money, and we're aware that our team is extremely competitive.

"We'll go into the traditional transfer window after the tournament still with the biggest ambitions to see if we can reinforce the team even more."

Calzada was speaking in Miami, where Al-Hilal play Ronaldo's former club Real Madrid in their opening Club World Cup fixture on Wednesday (20:00 BST).

Al-Hilal recently appointed Simone Inzaghi as their head coach but did not make any major signings before the tournament in the United States.

Earlier this month, Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes claimed he rejected a huge offer from Al-Hilal because he still wants to play "at the highest possible level".

"I cannot confirm nor deny that we've been interested in him," added Calzada.

"He's a big player, it fits the profile of player that we think would be good for Al-Hilal, just like many others. We're not refraining from contacting players because we feel they would say no to us.

"The names we are linked with demonstrate the ambition of the club. We believe that we are in a position to pitch [to] any players nowadays."

In recent months, Al-Hilal have also reportedly considered moves for Liverpool forward Darwin Nunez and Napoli striker Victor Osimhen.

While refusing to comment on those specific cases, Calzada did say: "We are targeting the biggest players.

"We are very ambitious, but we need to see hunger from the player himself and the transaction needs to work out both ways.

"The only thing we've been trying to remind players and agents is that yes, we are from Saudi, but we don't print notes here!

"My role as CEO is to make sure we run the club efficiently, so that we can have the biggest budget possible to have big players, but not at any cost.

"That's why sometimes we basically walk away from negotiations, because we still want players extremely keen on coming, and not only looking for the money."

The likes of Ruben Neves, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Joao Cancelo helped Al-Hilal win the 2023-24 Saudi Pro League, but record signing Neymar left the club in January after just seven appearances following an injury-hit spell in Riyadh.

When asked if the club regretted signing the Brazilian, Calzada - who previously worked at both Barcelona and Manchester City - said: "I would say no regret at all.

"It's just sad that he got badly injured. It's always been unfair to criticise Neymar for being injured, when most of the injuries came from tackles from opponents.

"A collateral positive effect of it is that it helped us to make the club more popular globally. It helped us to gain social media followers when he arrived, alongside other big names.

"Now we have over 42 million followers on social media. The good news for us is that some of those followers, we won them because of the arrival of Neymar, and when he left, they stayed.

Al-Hilal finished the Saudi Pro League season eight points behind new champions Al-Ittihad, and sacked Portuguese coach Jorge Jesus last month after his team were knocked out of the Asian Champions League Elite semi-finals.

Inzaghi was appointed just days after his former club Inter Milan lost the Champions League final against PSG.

"It might look like it's something that came quickly, but it's the result of hard work," said Calzada.

"He was playing a massive match and asked [us] to keep things aside until after the final, it was decided but not signed before the final, just because out of respect he asked us to wait, which is certainly fair enough.

"This season we came off second, that's below par for what is expected from us.

"And very simply what we expect from the new coach is that he helps us to win again and to re-establish our championship."

Al-Hilal's match against Real Madrid on Wednesday is a repeat of the final of the 2022 tournament.

Real Madrid won 5-3 in Morocco, with Vinicius Jnr and Federico Valverde each scoring twice and Karim Benzema - now of Saudi club Al-Ittihad - also on target. Al-Hilal responded through Moussa Marega and two from Luciano Vietto.

"It's a huge opportunity for us to show our product, [and] to also test our level as well, because we don't have so many opportunities," said Calzada.

"We're not here to exchange shirts with Real Madrid players, or only for the exposure.

"We have a very talented squad, with the addition of a world-renowned new coach with us and with that we go to the tournament with the maximum ambition."