Is Cristiano Ronaldo worth his £176m Saudi Pro League salary?

It started, as things in football so often do, with Cristiano Ronaldo. 

More household names quickly followed – Neymar, Karim Benzema, Roberto Firmino. All were lured to the Saudi Pro League by the promise of untold wealth as the Gulf State, eager to diversify an oil-based economy and rehabilitate its reputation abroad, flexed its financial muscles. 

Ronaldo was said to be on more than £3m a week when he arrived at Al-Nassr as a free agent following his second spell at Manchester United. That was before he signed a new deal with the state-backed club this summer worth a reported £176m a year, in the process collecting a £24.5m signing fee.

Neymar, meanwhile, a £77m arrival at Al-Hilal in the summer of 2023, was earning more than £80m a year in Riyadh before his January return to Brazilian side Santos, while Benzema, the former Real Madrid striker and Ballon d’Or winner, is understood to be on a similar salary at Al-Ittihad. It is enough to make Sadio Mané’s estimated £42m wage at Al-Nassr look relatively paltry, let alone the estimated £18m raked in by his erstwhile Liverpool team-mate Firmino.

But what exactly is Saudi Arabia getting for its money? There are two schools of thought. Within the country, explanations range from the government’s mission to encourage a youthful population to play sport to boosting jobs and tourism. Overseas sceptics contend the real motive is to deflect the international gaze away from a questionable human rights record.  

Whatever the truth, it is legitimate to wonder whether it has all been worth it. For Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad, a former Saudi sports minister, the answer is a resounding no – with one notable exception. 

“Ronaldo is the only foreign player worth what he earns because of the global exposure he brings to the league and the country,” said the prince in a television interview. “Many others are paid far more than they deserve.”

Does he have a point? Let us consider each claim in turn.

Is Cristiano Ronaldo worth his £176m a year salary?

Al-Nassr have paid Ronaldo a king’s ransom since December 2022, when he signed the most lucrative contract in football history with the Riyadh-based club. It is hard to argue that he has not been worth every penny – or halala, to cite the local currency – from the perspective of the club and the league in which it operates.

Before Ronaldo joined, Al-Nassr’s Instagram following stood at a modest 860,000. Within a few hours of his arrival, that number had almost doubled to 1.6 million. Today, the club has almost 29 million followers. For context, that is more than Liverpool, Chelsea and Real Madrid. 

Across Instagram, Facebook, X and TikTok combined, meanwhile, the digital spike generated by Ronaldo’s signing after one year was 40.6 million followers, larger than the growth generated across those platforms by Neymar’s move to Al-Hilal (10.1 million) and Lionel Messi’s switch to Inter Miami (27.4 million) put together. When signing a global superstar, it clearly pays to choose the right one. 

Never before has a club benefited so spectacularly from the modern trend among many younger fans to identify more strongly with individual players than clubs. At a stroke, Ronaldo’s global reach became not only Al-Hassr’s global reach, but also that of the league and the country. 

‘I believe Cristiano Ronaldo started all this’

At the most visible level, Ronaldo’s status prompted a reappraisal of Saudi football among his contemporaries. Players who might previously have sneered at the notion of plying their trade in the country reasoned that, if the league was good enough for Ronaldo, if was good enough for them. 

“I believe Cristiano Ronaldo started all of this and everybody called him crazy,” said Neymar on joining Al-Hilal from Paris Saint-Germain in August 2023. “Today, you see the league grow more and more.”

Benzema expressed similar sentiments on arriving in Jeddah that October, just 12 months after he had been voted the world’s best player. 

“It’s a good league and there are many good players,” said the Frenchman. “Cristiano Ronaldo is already here, he is a friend who shows that Saudi Arabia is starting to get ahead. I am here to win, as I did in Europe.”

Neither is the Ronaldo effect confined to thirtysomethings. When Jhon Durán left Aston Villa to join Al-Nassr in January, offering further evidence of a league-wide shift towards signing emerging young talent rather than fading superstars, the 21-year-old talked breathlessly of his admiration for the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.

“Many players dream of playing alongside Cristiano Ronaldo, and I have now fulfilled that dream,” said Durán after making his club debut.

The recruitment of players like Durán and the Belgium under-21 international Matteo Dams, who earlier this year ignored Premier League interest and a contract renewal offer from PSV Eindhoven to join Al-Ahli, lends further credibility to the Saudi Pro League. No longer just a lavishly-remunerated retirement home for fading stars, the league has been recast as a viable destination for elite young prospects – in the eyes of whom, Ronaldo’s presence has created an allure deeper than mere dollar signs.

Nor should Ronaldo’s wider effectiveness as a marketing tool be overlooked. Last October, the Portugal international became the first person to surpass 1 billion social media followers across all platforms, eclipsing not only his old rival Messi but also stars of the entertainment world like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. It means that when Ronaldo lends his support to Saudi tourism initiatives like the recent Unreal Calendar campaign – tagline, “I came for football, I stayed for more” – the reach and impact ranges far beyond anything Saudi could have achieved on its own. 

Are footballers other than Ronaldo paid more than they deserve in Saudi Arabia?

Given that not even the likes of Messi, Roger Federer and LeBron James can match Ronaldo’s extraordinary global cachet, it comes as no surprise that the impact of his Saudi Pro League peers pales in comparison.

The most glaring example is Neymar. At a conservative estimate, the Brazilian went home roughly £120m richer when an injury-plagued 18-month spell came to an end with a mutual agreement to terminate his contract. Based on that figure, which does not include any signing-on fees, bonuses or compensation for ending his deal early, Neymar’s seven appearances for Al-Hilal cost roughly £17m apiece.

In fairness, it was hardly the 33-year-old’s fault. But even allowing for the catalogue of injuries Neymar suffered, which included a cruciate ligament tear that sidelined him for almost a year and a series of hamstring problems, no player could possibly justify that kind of outlay.

Yet even the stars who have turned out regularly for their clubs have had less quantifiable impact than Ronaldo, football’s first billionaire. While their collective presence has undoubtedly added a veneer of glamour to wider Saudi initiatives like the Vision 2030 project, which aims to move the kingdom away from a reliance on oil and generate fresh revenue streams, none can claim to transcend sporting boundaries in the manner of Ronaldo, let alone rival the 40-year-old’s astonishing digital presence.

Whether that means they are paid more than they deserve, as Prince Abdullah bin Mosaad suggested, is down to personal perception. But when Benzema recently attempted to align himself and others with Ronaldo in terms of impact – “Saudi Arabia needs players like Cristiano, or like me, or like others who have come here to give them some of the things we have in Europe,” said the striker – his words carried a faint whiff of self-aggrandisement. The contrast with Ronaldo’s avowed mission statement is instructive.

“I’m here to win,” Ronaldo declared on arriving in the kingdom. “To win trophies, to make Al-Nassr better, to make the Saudi Pro League better, change the culture.”

They were large ambitions, but it is hard to contend he has not made good on them. The Saudi Pro League may benefit from the presence of players like Benzema but, for better or worse, there is only one Cristiano Ronaldo.