“If only,” laughs Marlon Beresford when i asks him whether he enjoyed a similar wage to Cristiano Ronaldo when he was an employee at Al Nassr.
Now the Woking goalkeeping coach, Beresford spent three seasons working in Saudi Arabia, one of which was spent at Al Nassr – the club which Ronaldo looks set to call home until the summer of 2025.
Ronaldo’s wage is eye-watering – reportedly between £172m and £177m, but what’s a £5m a year difference when you’re trousering these kind of sums – but his impact could be similarly ground-breaking.
Beresford, who was a coach at Al Nassr for a year, saw first-hand the passion of the supporters in this part of the world, the kind of financial clout the club’s government-backed top-flight teams enjoy, and the facilities that will welcome Ronaldo when he touches down in Riyadh.
“There will be a lot of razzmatazz when he’s introduced to everyone,” says Beresford. “But I missed the boat, didn’t I. I was a couple of years too late to work with Cristiano!
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“If he keeps fit then he’ll score a bag-full of goals, that’s pretty much inevitable.
“They’re halfway through their season at the moment, and it wouldn’t surprise me to see him score a lot of goals before now and the end of their campaign. Al Nassr are top of the league at the moment, so you would think that bringing him in will only help.
“There’s more foreign players generally in Saudi Arabia than in a lot of other leagues, there’s a big Spanish, Portuguese and South American influence, so he’ll be surrounded by the kind of quality that would probably surprise some people.
“He’ll adapt quickly, I think you can be pretty certain of that.”
Whatever happens to him on the pitch, Saudi Arabia’s government will hope that he also has a considerable influence off it, too.
With Saudi Arabia expected to spearhead a joint bid with Greece and Egypt to host the 2030 World Cup, Ronaldo’s arrival in the capital can only help raise football’s profile in the Kingdom.
Having the 37-year-old on the team sheet should also ensure a boom in attendances whenever Al Nassr come to town.
“He’ll go to some clubs that usually only get 400 or 500 fans through the gate,” says Beresford. “Inevitably, some of them will be filling out their stadiums – they’ll get whatever capacity they can hold, whether that’s 4,000, 5,000 or 40,000.
“Al Nassr is a huge club in the country and the training facilities are fantastic,” says Beresford. “A lot of clubs in Saudi build mini-stadiums which double up as their training grounds. Al-Shabab even play some of their league matches there.”
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Al Nassr are one of the biggest and most successful sides in Saudi Arabian football. The nine-time Saudi Pro League winners – they last lifted the title in 2018-19 – are the second most successful side in the country, behind Al-Hilal.
Ronaldo’s entrance will be expected to herald a period of domestic dominance.
“It’s a marketing dream,” says Beresford. “For the country, and the league itself, this couldn’t have been better timed, it’s perfect.”
How long the love-in lasts is anyone’s guess. But the honeymoon period starts today.
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