‘Saudi championship is much better than MLS’: Ronaldo takes shot at Messi, shuts all doors for Europe return

The modern era football is filled with stars but very few have been able to achieve what Cristiano Ronaldo and his biggest contemporary Lionel Messi has done in the past decade. While many argue the debate between who’s the best settled with Messi’s World Cup triumph in Qatar, a trophy which has eluded Ronaldo despite him being there for five editions, the Portuguese’s latest statement suggest otherwise.

Ronaldo, who now plies his trade in the cash-rich Saudi league, took a shot at Messi calling the competition in Saudi Arabia more superior than Major League Soccer (MLS). His statement comes a day after Messi was officially signed by MLS side Inter Miami.

As per reports, Ronaldo in an interaction with Lisbon sports newspaper A Bola also shut all the doors of his return to Europe, a continent where his career flourished in the past.

“Returning to Europe, for me, is a closed possibility, I’m already 38 1/2 years old and … it’s not worth it.

“Europe lost a lot of quality. The only one that is one of the best is the Premier League, the Spanish league lost its level, the Portuguese one is not ‘top’, the German one also lost a lot of quality. The USA? No, the Saudi championship is much better than the USA,” he was quoted as saying.

The Portuguese forward plays for Saudi side Al Nassr, which he joined earlier this year, and the recent transfer window has seen a huge influx of other European talents.

Since Ronaldo’s arrival, the Saudi league has attracted his former Real Madrid teammate Karim Benzema and N’Golo Kante, Brazil’s Roberto Firmino, Senegal’s Edouard Mendy, Serbia’s Sergej Milinkovic-Savic and Croatia’s Marcelo Brozovic.

Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard too has joined a side in the managerial role.

Ronaldo believes more players will take the same route in the coming months. “In one year, more and more top players will come to Saudi. In a year the Saudi league will overtake the Turkish league and Dutch league.”

Ronaldo statement’s came after Al Nassr endured a 5-0 hammering in a preseason friendly against Spanish top-division side Celta Vigo at Faro, Portugal.