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via Imago

via Imago

At this point, there’s a snowball’s chance in hell for Cristiano Ronaldo to move to a new club. Firstly, he is contractually tied to Al Nassr until 2025. Besides, Ronaldo, at 39 is undoubtedly at the twilight of his career. But that does not stop the rumor mill from predicting the Portuguese captain’s next destination. Such rumors linked the 5x Ballon d’Or winner to Mexico’s Monterrey, which knocked out Lionel Messi‘s Inter Miami in the CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter-final. However, Monterrey’s president recently quashed the CR7 rumor by cracking a joke.

Monterrey next plays Columbus Crew in the CCC semi-finals. Upon the Monterrey entourage’s arrival for training in Columbus, a fan asked their president Jose Antonio Noriega if the club would sign Cristiano Ronaldo. “It’s impossible. If the fans raise money, it might happen,” said the President in response. Ronaldo, notably, is the highest-paid soccer player. He inked a staggering $536 million contract with Al Nassr in January 2023. Therefore, Lionel Messi’s vanquishers would indeed need crowd-funding to compete with the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund-owned Al Nassr’s deep pockets.

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Besides, per reports from last October, Cristiano Ronaldo intends to extend his contract with Al Nassr for another two years. This means the 39-year-old will stay in the Riyadh club until 2027. Meanwhile, his partner Georgina Rodriguez hinted he will hang his boots in 2026. So Monterrey fans’ dream to acquire Ronaldo will remain unrealized for now. Anyhow, Ronaldo has been a recurrent motif in the Rayados’ base after their fans used his name to taunt Lionel Messi during Inter Miami’s CCC exit.

When fans gave the Cristiano Ronaldo treatment to Lionel Messi

The Inter Miami-Monterrey tie in the CCC was characterized by back-to-back scuffles between the two teams. Lionel Messi drew daggers with the Mexican team’s coach for saying CONCACAF referees were biased toward the Miami team. Then, when the Rayados hosted Miami, Mexican fans met Messi with immense hostility. They chanted Cristiano Ronaldo’s name and performed his iconic ‘Siuu’ celebration to add insult to a vanquished Messi’s injury. Monterrey had then knocked Miami out with a 5-2 aggregate scoreline.

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via Reuters

Anyhow, it is not just the Argentine who received such hostile treatment from fans. Elsewhere, in Saudi Arabia, rival fans routinely taunt Ronaldo with Leo Messi chants. Once, the insult was so immense that the Al Nassr star clapped back at a rival crowd during a game against Al Shabab. As it happened, Ronaldo got infuriated by Messi’s chants and obscenely pumped his hands, facing the rival crowd. Subsequently, the league authorities punished Ronaldo with a one-game ban. With a move to Monterrey quashed, the Portugal international will continue in Saudi, occasionally dealing with hostile ‘Messi’ chants.