Gerry Cardinale Considers Al Nassr Stake Amid Ronaldo's Future

Gerry Cardinale has never been shy about scale. Milan, Toulouse, now potentially Saudi Arabia. The American investor is again looking beyond the traditional map of European football — and this time the path runs straight through Cristiano Ronaldo’s current home.

Speaking to La Gazzetta dello Sport during a busy week in Milan, the Rossoneri owner confirmed that talks have taken place over a possible move for a majority stake in Al Nassr, one of the flagship clubs of the Saudi Pro League.

“There have been conversations to assess the opportunity of Al Nassr and they approached me to examine it, but we are at a preliminary stage,” Cardinale said, laying out the situation with characteristic bluntness. No grandstanding. No denial either.

He has been in Italy for several days, taking in Milan’s Serie A fixtures against Udinese and Bologna and attending Thursday’s event unveiling the new shared stadium project for Milan and Inter. While the city has been talking about concrete, capacity and curves of the future San Siro, Cardinale’s gaze has also been drifting east.

The Middle East is not new territory for him. “I do a lot of work in the Middle East,” he explained, before turning to the figure who inevitably dominates any Al Nassr discussion: Cristiano Ronaldo.

Here, Cardinale’s interest becomes more than just financial. “I’d like to meet Ronaldo because I’m intrigued to understand what he might want to do when he stops playing and what his future involvement with the Saudi club will be,” he said.

It is a revealing line. The question is not only who owns Al Nassr, but what Ronaldo becomes once the goals dry up. Club executive? Global ambassador? Partner in a wider project? Cardinale clearly wants to hear it from the man himself.

For now, he insists the process remains exploratory. There is no deal, only dialogue. Any potential move would also have to sit alongside his existing portfolio. “I will continue to assess multi-club possibilities, bearing in mind that I already have Toulouse and Milan,” he added.

That last point matters. The multi-club model is reshaping the sport’s power structure, and Cardinale is already a player in that game. An Al Nassr acquisition would push him deeper into a landscape where talent, branding and strategy move across borders with increasing ease.

While the future is being mapped out in boardrooms, the present still belongs to the pitch. In the same interview, Cardinale underlined his backing for Milan coach Ruben Amorim, who has come under the usual scrutiny that surrounds any Rossoneri boss after a stutter or two.

He “still fully trusts” Amorim, Cardinale stressed, and he did more than offer words. He promised further investment in the squad when the January transfer window opens, a clear signal that he expects Milan not just to compete, but to accelerate.

The timing of those comments is no coincidence. Cardinale will be in the stands at San Siro tomorrow for the first derby della Madonnina of the campaign, a match that always acts as a barometer of Milan’s ambitions and nerve.

On one side, the noise and colour of the city’s fiercest rivalry. On the other, quiet talks about a club in Riyadh and a 41‑year‑old Ronaldo still scoring at a World Cup in Houston.

Cardinale is trying to straddle both worlds — the emotion of Milan and the global sprawl of modern football business. The next steps, in Saudi Arabia and in the January market, will show just how big a footprint he intends to leave.