Ronaldo Loan To Al-Hilal Dismissed

Cristiano Ronaldo won the Saudi Pro League Golden Boot with 25 goals this season, but any thought of him turning out for Al-Hilal in the Club World Cup was labelled “completely counter-intuitive” by the club’s chief executive, Esteve Calzada.

Despite talks circulating after FIFA opened an extra transfer window tied to the updated Club World Cup format, Calzada made clear there was no serious pursuit. Ronaldo remains under contract at Al-Nassr until the end of June, and both Riyadh clubs fall under the umbrella of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF).

“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,” Calzada told BBC Sport.

He called this window “a very weird transfer window, it’s a very short period of time,” and stressed the need to avoid making short-sighted moves built around tournament thinking.

“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.”

Al-Hilal face Real Madrid in their opening fixture on Wednesday. Calzada said efforts were made to strengthen the squad but found targets unreachable.

“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.”

Al-Hilal will revisit recruitment after the tournament. “We’ll go into the traditional transfer window… with the biggest ambitions.”

Calzada was unapologetic about the club’s high-profile approach, saying they were in a good position to sign elite names, referencing interest in Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes, as well as Darwin Nunez and Victor Osimhen.

“I cannot confirm nor deny that we’ve been interested in [Bruno]. He’s a big player, it fits the profile of player that we think would be good for Al-Hilal, just like many others,” he said.

“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.”

Calzada made it clear Al-Hilal won’t be drawn into deals without commitment from the players.

“We are very ambitious, but we need to see hunger from the player himself and the transaction needs to work out both ways,” he said. “Yes, we are from Saudi, but we don’t print notes here… sometimes we walk away from negotiations, because we still want players extremely keen on coming.”

On whether Neymar’s brief stint — cut short after seven appearances due to injury — was a misstep, he was diplomatic.

“I would say no regret at all,” Calzada said. “It’s just sad that he got badly injured… most of the injuries came from tackles from opponents.”

Neymar’s arrival did deliver measurable off-pitch benefits. “It helped us to make the club more popular globally… Now we have over 42 million followers on social media… and when he left, they stayed.”

Al-Hilal have turned to Italian coach Simone Inzaghi, installed just after Inter Milan’s Champions League final loss to PSG.

“It might look like it’s something that came quickly, but it’s the result of hard work particularly from our chairman,” said Calzada. “He asked us to wait until after the final… which is certainly fair enough.”

Al-Hilal ended the previous campaign eight points behind Al-Ittihad and are looking to reassert domestic dominance alongside global improvement.

“This season we came off second, that’s below par for what is expected from us,” Calzada said. “And very simply what we expect from the new coach is that he helps us to win again.”

Al-Hilal’s upcoming clash with Real Madrid is a rematch of their 2022 Club World Cup final, lost 5-3 in Morocco.

“It’s a huge opportunity for us… 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… and we go to the tournament with the maximum ambition.”