Al Nassr manager discusses Cristiano Ronaldo interest

Al Nassr manager Rudi Garcia has admitted he would like the chance to coach Cristiano Ronaldo, with the Saudi side still awaiting his response to their contract offer.

Ronaldo is currently a free agent after the mutual termination of his Manchester United contract, following his scathing criticism of the club in an interview with Piers Morgan.

Al Nassr have made an offer to Ronaldo which would see him become the highest-paid footballer of all time. Sources have confirmed to 90min that he is yet to respond to the offer, although there is a confidence among those in charge of the club that Ronaldo will accept.

Should he join, he'll be managed by Garcia, who took charge in the summer following spells at Lille, Roma, Marseille and Lyon.

Given he held such roles, the Frenchman is no stranger to managing big names and has admitted that he'd like to work with Ronaldo.

Garcia claimed he was close to doing so last year, almost being hired by Man Utd, and was excited about the prospect at the time, feeling players of the forward's calibre are the easiest to coach.

"I think that any coach would be delighted to train a great star like Cristiano and already, in November 2021, I was very close to going to United," he told AS.

"They chose Ralf Rangnick, but I met twice with John Murtough and Darren Fletcher. I came very close to coaching this club and was very motivated to go, who wouldn't be motivated to coach United?

"I have always thought that the great players are the easiest to manage because they are very intelligent, I verified this with Francesco Totti at Roma."

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