Indecent Proposals | The Press

Leaving Manchester United for Al-Nassr of Riyadh is like leaving the New York Yankees for the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions of Tainan.

The what?

That’s it. It’s not done – unless the proposal is indecent.

Like a 30 million annual salary?

Pfff…

50 millions ?

It’s insulting.

100 million ?

Not even close.

How about 287 million Canadian dollars, or 200 million euros, per season? This is the amount that Cristiano Ronaldo will receive to play soccer and perform other related tasks in Saudi Arabia. Among these related tasks: promoting the country’s candidacy for the 2030 World Cup and participating in a huge public relations campaign to restore the image of this nation. A shocking deal, in many ways.

First, because of the amount of the contract; 287 million Canadian dollars for about thirty games a year is absurd. Excessive. Indecent. Just to pay this salary, the Al-Nassr club would have to sell 38,000 tickets for each home game, at $500 per seat. The joke ? Its stadium has only 25,000 seats.

If Al-Nassr can afford Ronaldo, it is obviously thanks to petrodollars, which are influencing several championships. Let’s not be hypocrites. Ronaldo is neither the first nor the last athlete to benefit from the generosity of the black gold kings. The three highest-paid footballers after him, Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappé and Neymar, play for Paris Saint-Germain, a property of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund.

In England, Manchester City (2^e) and Newcastle (3^e) belong to oil princes. Close to home, New York City FC, who defeated CF Montreal in the playoffs, is majority owned by a company linked to the royal family of the United Arab Emirates.

Another disturbing fact: Ronaldo agreed to become the ambassador of one of the worst delinquent countries in terms of human rights. I remind you that it was Saudi Arabia that imprisoned Canadian blogger Raif Badawi for almost 10 years. It was also in a Saudi Arabian embassy that journalist Jamal Khashoggi was assassinated, then cut into pieces. Amnesty International is calling on Cristiano Ronaldo to use his gigavedette status to expose abuses by Saudi leaders.

The chances of that happening?

As weak as those of seeing him play one day with CF Montreal. “I want to give a different vision of this country and of football. That’s why I took this opportunity,” he said last week.

Then beyond the disturbing geopolitical considerations, there is a purely sporting one. That of seeing an elite player give up facing the best. It is very disappointing. The very antithesis of competitiveness and self-transcendence.

Who, among amateurs, wants to see a gifted dominating lower caliber players? Absolutely nobody.

I prefer Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers in the NFL, rather than the CFL. LeBron James in the NBA, rather than Greece. Aaron Judge with the Yankees, rather than the Uni-President 7-Eleven Lions. It’s true that at 37, Ronaldo is no longer as effective as he was at his peak. However, he remains a striker capable of making a difference in a major European championship.

His gesture is not new. Bobby Hull left the NHL for the World Hockey Association. David Beckham has left Real Madrid for the Los Angeles Galaxy. Dozens of golfers have just preferred Saudi riyals to the PGA. These decisions remain exceptions. Unfortunately, each time, it feeds a little more the cynicism of amateurs towards professional sport.

CF Montreal began their training camp on Monday at the Olympic Stadium. No Cristiano Ronaldo here to boost ticket sales. The two rookies everyone is talking about: head coach Hernán Losada, plus the new top-quality artificial turf that has just been laid on the stadium’s concrete slab.

You will have understood that CF Montreal has not replaced Djordje Mihailovic, Alistair Johnston and Ismaël Koné with big international names, as it has already done in the past. That era is over. Not right here. Almost everywhere in MLS, except for Los Angeles, Toronto and Miami.

What changed ?

The competition. The few established players who leave major European leagues for secondary leagues, as Cristiano Ronaldo has just done, usually accept the most generous offer. And this offer, it comes more and more often from Asia, and less and less often from North America.

Andrés Iniesta earns 25 million a year in Japan. Chinese clubs pay foreigners very well. Saudi teams too. Almost 100 players in Saudi Arabia earn more than 1 million per season. That’s a lot of additional competitors for CF Montreal on the transfer market, a team leader pointed out to me.

So for the moment, the Montreal club is banking on the emergence of young shoots. Icelandic international Róbert Thorkelsson, 20, will he become a starter? Quebec midfielder Nathan Saliba, one of the best prospects in the country, will he win at only 18 years old?

I understand your frustrations. But unlike the other four major leagues in North America (NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL), the MLS is not the most competitive circuit in the world in its sport. Unless players are overpaid, as Al-Nassr did with Ronaldo, hosting superstars will be increasingly difficult.

A controversial appointment

Sandro Grande is the new head coach of the CF Montreal reserve team. It was he who took his teammate Mauro Biello by the throat in 2009. It was also he who found himself in the news, the day after the assassination attempt on Pauline Marois, in 2012, when the following remarks found themselves on his Twitter account: “The only mistake the shooter made last night was missing his target! Marois! Next time, dude! I hope ! »

Grande claimed her account had been hacked. I dare to believe that if he manages young separatist players, he will not call them “stupid” and “settlers”, as he described the separatists in a racist, revolting and unacceptable Facebook status published in 2012, for which he then apologized.

Does CF Montreal really need to partner with a coach who insulted a significant proportion of Quebecers 10 years ago? I find it difficult to conceive that the benefits are greater than the damage caused to the image of the club.