Can the Ronaldo effect pay off for Saudi Arabia?

A job vacancy ad in LinkedIn caught my attention the other day. Arabian Business, a Dubai-based business website, is looking for ‘Ronaldo correspondent’ to track the activities of CR7 as he moved to Saudi Arabia’s Al Nassr for a record fee of $ 214 million (173m pounds approximately) per annum this week.

Well, when football’s biggest showman comes to town – albeit at 37 and with a waning prowess – it’s surely going to raise the stress levels of the regional media. ‘’The Ronaldo correspondent, working out of the Arabian Business offices in Riyadh, will be required to cover all matches at Al Nassr, media and commercial related events – and provide daily updates and insights into the life of Ronaldo as he settles into Saudi Arabia,’’ the job description said in the ad.

This is possibly the tip of the iceberg of the long term impact that Ronaldo is expected to generate during his three-year stay in the petro dollar-rich Saudi Arabia. The packed media centre at Al Nassr’s Mrsool Park stadium earlier this week received the kind of eyeballs which threatened to turn the attention away from Pele’s funeral as the record goalscorer of international football said all the politically correct things.

 “Many clubs tried to sign me but I gave my word to this club, for the opportunity to have not only football but (to be) part of this amazing country. And for me it was a challenge,” said Ronaldo. His setting foot into the gulf country has already witnessed a huge swing in the searches about the club on social media while his trademark No.7 jersey have been flying off the shelves there –  though there is certainly more to what meets the eye behind the pathbreaking deal.

 This is part of a larger gameplan for Saudi Arabia as a country, which have begun to leverage on sport to gain acceptability before the global community in the face of their deplorable human rights record – catching on a template initiated by the neighbouring UAE and Qatar. The latter, of course, has stolen a march by hosting the Fifa World Cup successfully in the face of a virulent attack from the western media.

It’s now Saudis’ turn, which has till now hosted events as diverse as Saudi Cup, the richest horseracing payday in the world, a F1 race, world championship boxing bouts, WWE wrestling, the rebel Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tour which is threatening to drive a wedge into the golfing establishment of the world. The ultimate goal for them, as the buzz goes, is a bid for co-hosting the 2030 Fifa World Cup in the company of Morocco and Greece – and they have begun to pull out on all stops.

 It’s now Saudis’ turn, which has till now hosted events as diverse as Saudi Cup, the richest horseracing payday in the world, a F1 race, world championship boxing bouts, WWE wrestling, the rebel Saudi-backed LIV Golf Tour which is threatening to drive a wedge into the golfing establishment of the world. The ultimate goal for them, as the buzz goes, is a bid for co-hosting the 2030 Fifa World Cup in the company of Morocco and Greece – and they have begun to pull out on all stops.

 A significant  announcement during Qatar 2022 was that of Lionel Messi, the toast of world football at the moment, agreeing to become a brand ambassador for the Saudi Arabia Tourist Board to promote their country. The Argentine’s nod has certainly come at a staggering price, which media reports put at $ 25 million annually, and it’s a given that he will be asked to play his part should the Saudi bid become a reality. Now with Ronaldo being also a part of the country’s football fraternity, Saudi Arabia has two of the biggest ambassadors of the game since the turn of the century on board.

 The similarity between Qatar and Saudis’ sportswashing as a means of changing their international image is quite uncanny – though the former had followed the footsteps of the UAE much earlier. They had started world class tennis, athletics events, built the Aspire Academy while the icing on the cake was when Qatar Sports Investments took over the Paris St. Germain and converted it into a financial powerhouse in world football. Their pursuit to project themselves as a soft power reached a natural climax with hosting of one of the competitive World Cups – and virtually on their own terms.

 Looking beyond the geopolitics, will the arrival of Ronaldo as a player serve as a major boost for the football of the region, and the country in particular? The Middle East had been, slowly but surely, emerging as a power bloc in world football –  flaunting owners of clubs like PSG, Manchester City (Abu Dhabi) or in recent times, Newcastle United (Saudi Arabia). Money certainly talks and this has seen the likes of a Raul or Xavi playing in Qatar, Fabio Cannavaro, Italy’s World Cup winning captain, playing in the UAE or Diego Maradona serving two stints as coaches in the UAE.

 Ashley Hammond, a former football writer with Gulf News and an erstwhile colleague, was at hand to see what difference the presence of Maradona made in the commercial fortunes of Dubai-based Al Wasl Club and Fujairah Club. Trying to put the phenomenon of Ronaldo’s transfer into perspective, Hammond says: ‘’Ronaldo is certainly the biggest footballing import as a player in the Middle East. It can only be compared with Pele and Beckenbauer moving to North America in the mid ‘70s at the end of their careers. The magic of seeing fans react to Ronaldo in flesh and blood is priceless – it’s a vibe that money can’t buy.

 ‘’However, it’s difficult to say what kind of impact his arrival is going to have in the club’s fortunes in their league or the country’s football. It’s certainly not worth spending 200 million but you look at the politics of such a move, the feel-good factor that it’s going to generate with women fans in the stadium in a country with purdah for ages – may be it’s worth as a total package. Ronaldo may even retire at the end of the season but like it happened with the American League, the Saudi league will always enjoy a brand recall that Ronaldo was here,’’ he felt.

 If the Saudis have learnt one thing from Qatar’s success via sport, it’s that a week into the World Cup, the world had actually stopped talking about the hosts’ deplorable human rights record and talked football. Notwithstanding the uneasy truce between the two after the economic blockade ended on Qatar, Saudis will now be desperate to re-affirm their status as the regional big brothers.

The Ronaldo move, much as roping in Messi as the brand ambassador, could be a step in that direction!