Cardinale Pursues Al-Nassr as Ronaldo Approaches 1,000 Goals
Gerry Cardinale can already see the outline of his next project. Not in Europe this time, but in Riyadh, where Cristiano Ronaldo is still bending games – and records – to his will.
RedBird Capital Partners, the American investment firm Cardinale founded, is exploring a move to buy Al-Nassr from Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund. It is early, he insists. But the implications are anything but small.
If the deal happens, Ronaldo, the club’s captain and global figurehead, could become a part-owner of the team he joined in 2023. A 41-year-old American investor and a 39-year-old Portuguese icon, potentially tied together not just on the pitch and in the dressing room, but in the boardroom that shapes what comes next.
For Cardinale, this is familiar territory. RedBird bought an 85 per cent majority stake in Toulouse in 2020, then completed the acquisition of AC Milan in 2022. Add Al-Nassr to that list and you have a multi-club network stretching from Serie A to Ligue 1 to the Saudi Pro League – with Christian Pulisic starring in Milan and Ronaldo still raging against time in Riyadh.
‘There have been discussions’
Cardinale did not dodge the subject when speaking to Gazzetta dello Sport. He confirmed the interest, but drew a thick line under any suggestion that a deal is close.
"There have been discussions to assess the Al-Nassr opportunity and I was contacted to look into it, but we are at a preliminary stage. I work a lot in the Middle East," he said.
That word – preliminary – matters. For now, this is an assessment, not a handshake.
What clearly intrigues Cardinale is not just the club, but the man at the centre of it. Ronaldo is under contract in Saudi Arabia until June 2027. Those three years could define how he finishes his playing career. They might also shape what he becomes after it.
"I'd like to meet Ronaldo because I'm curious to find out what he might want to do when he retires and what his future involvement with the Saudi club might be. I'll continue to assess the possibilities of managing multiple clubs, although I already have Toulouse and AC Milan," Cardinale added.
So this is not only about building a portfolio. It is about discovering whether one of football’s greatest ever players wants to step into ownership, influence recruitment, guide strategy – or simply walk away when the goals finally stop.
Ronaldo, the ‘alien’, keeps scoring
The problem, for anyone trying to talk about Ronaldo’s future, is that his present keeps shouting over the top of the conversation.
On Thursday, he scored yet another hat-trick in Al-Nassr’s wild 5-3 Saudi Pro League win over Al-Kholood. Eight goals, end to end, with Ronaldo again at the heart of it. That treble nudged him closer to an almost unthinkable milestone: 1,000 career goals. He now sits just 15 short.
Boxer Oleksandr Usyk was in the stands to watch the spectacle and had only two words for the Portuguese forward: "an alien". On nights like this, it is hard to argue. The runs are still sharp, the finishes still ruthless, the hunger still obvious.
Ronaldo did what he has done for nearly two decades after the final whistle. He went online and turned the performance into a statement. "Great win, great team performance," he posted. "Happy to help with a hat trick!"
The message was simple. The numbers keep climbing.
A crossroads on and off the pitch
As Ronaldo stalks that 1,000-goal landmark, every game in the Saudi Pro League becomes another step towards history. Every finish, every celebration, every hat-trick adds to a career that already feels oversized.
In the background, Cardinale and RedBird continue their quiet work, weighing up whether Al-Nassr should become the next piece in their growing empire. If the talks progress, the club could soon sit alongside Toulouse and AC Milan in a tightly controlled network, with shared ideas, shared resources – and one very famous captain potentially holding a slice of the ownership.
Ronaldo has spent his life deciding matches. The next question is whether he wants to help decide how a club is run.
