Saudi Arabia club, Al-Hilal have provided the real reason Cristiano Ronaldo did not join them over the summer.
Al-Hilal said they were the previously unnamed Saudi club who made a mammoth offer to prise Ronaldo away from Manchester United.
The only official bid for the 37-year-old was said to have come from an unnamed Saudi team who were prepared to make Ronaldo the highest-paid player in world football.
The former Real Madrid and Juventus superstar, according to Metro, was offered a two-year contract worth £210million – or around £2m per week – they were also willing to pay a transfer fee of £25m, which is more than United paid Juventus just over a year ago.
But the deal never happened and it was reported that Ronaldo did not want to leave Europe at least for now.
But now Al-Hilal president Fahad ben Nafel has revealed that talks between them and Ronaldo had progressed well, but they were prevented from completing the deal due to a transfer ban.
Speaking on the Thamanya YouTube channel, he said: “Yes, we negotiated with Ronaldo. The problem was not in the money or the principle.
“Al-Hilal is able to bring in the stars of the world, but it was in the decision of the Sports Arbitration Center that prevented us from registering the players.
“We did not stop negotiating with the players despite the decision to ban, but we were delaying entering the final stage of the negotiations until the ban was lifted.”
