Al Nassr CEO Guido Fienga said that Cristiano Ronaldo “doesn’t control the club,” though he acknowledges his importance to the team.
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Ronaldo “doesn’t control” Al Nassr
The comments came after claims that the Portugal international has certain influence over the club’s on and off-field decisions.
Al Nassr recently appointed former AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli as their new manager after firing Luis Castro.
Speaking at the club’s event, Fienga clarified that Ronaldo, 39, doesn’t call the shots for the team.
“Cristiano Ronaldo is our captain and he is the strongest player in the world not just technically but how he behaves,” he said.
“Cristiano Ronaldo doesn’t control the club but obviously, being the No. 1 in the world, he gives the direction of where we have to go and which are the targets we have to reach. He is a winner and we ask him to teach us how to win.”
The goal is to win
Ronaldo, 39, joined Al Nassr in December 2022 after leaving Manchester United.
Since then, he has won one title in the Arab Club Champions Cup.
However, Al Nassr finished the season without a trophy following their King’s Cup final loss to Al Hilal in May.
“He is a winner and we ask him to teach us how to win,” Fienga said of the former Real Madrid star.
“We want to win with him this year and reach the best target that we can. Cristiano is part of the team and we are very happy to have him in our team.”
So far, Al Nassr just won two of the first six matches of the season.
Ronaldo missed Al Nassr’s 1-1 draw against Al Shorta in the revamped Asian Champions League on Monday due to illness.
“Step by step we will improve,” Fienga said.
“This summer don’t forget we invested almost $100 million in new players. I believe we did a good job in order to reinforce the club with some good players that we needed … we need to work and give stability to the club to work and to produce the value and not destroy the value every six months.”
