Not even Saudi Arabia or FIFA could get Cristiano Ronaldo to the Club World Cup

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Not even Saudi Arabia or FIFA could get Cristiano Ronaldo to the Club World Cup

2025-06-18 11:17 Last Updated At：11:21

MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — In the end, not even Saudi Arabia or Gianni Infantino could engineer a way to get Cristiano Ronaldo to the Club World Cup.

FIFA president Infantino certainly tried - last month making a public appeal ahead of the tournament.

“If any club is watching and is interested in hiring Ronaldo for the Club World Cup ...,” he teased during an interview with YouTuber iShowSpeed.

Ronaldo's contract with Saudi Arabian club Al-Nassr was due to expire and FIFA's decision to create a specially-made mini transfer window for its newest competition meant the path was clear for the Real Madrid great to sign a short-term deal with a new team just in time to take part.

Given his connection to Saudi Arabia, where he was the face of the oil-rich kingdom's spectacular drive to sign some of soccer's biggest stars in recent years, rumors began to circulate about a move to Al Hilal - the country's most successful team and its sole representative at the Club World Cup.

The problem was that Al Hilal and Al-Nassr are cross-city rivals in Riyadh. And even if Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund majority owns both teams - along with others - that was a step too far.

“As much as I respect Ronaldo as a huge player, as we all recognize he is, it’s certainly completely counter-intuitive that you bring the biggest player of your biggest opponent to play with you," Al Hilal chief executive Esteve Calzada told the BBC. “Even more when it’s only for three to four weeks."

Maybe so, but Saudi Arabia, with its vast wealth, has a made habit out of turning the improbable into the possible. And the very fact the prospect of a short-term move between clubs was even rumored, points to the boundaries it has been able to push while making its big play to become a force in global sport.

It has, after all, already changed the face of golf and virtually cornered the market for big time boxing. F1 racing is a fixed event and top class tennis has been lured, as well.

It’s ambitions in soccer have been the most spectacular of all - winning the right to host the 2034 World Cup, buying one of the Premier League’s most iconic teams in Newcastle and luring a slew of superstar players to a league that has nothing like the profile of those in Europe or Latin America.

Most recently it has played a role in helping to fund the Club World Cup - either directly or indirectly - with a reported $1 billion investment in tournament broadcaster DAZN and a commercial partnership with FIFA, which has put up a $1 billion prize pot for teams competing.

The Club World Cup is the chance for Saudi Arabia to make a latest statement on the international stage in its first chance test one of its elite clubs against the best from around the globe - starting with 15-time European champion Real Madrid at Miami's Hard Rock Stadium on Wednesday.

That is why it is surprising there wasn't more of a push to furnish Al Hilal with the type of marquee signing Saudi Arabian clubs have been collecting since Ronaldo’s move opened the floodgates at the end of 2022.

The four-time Asian champion even released Brazil great Neymar in January after an ACL injury reduced him to just seven appearances following his $94 million move from Paris Saint-Germain in 2023.

A move was made for Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes just before the Club World Cup, but the Portugal midfielder rejected the offer. There was also reported interest in striker Victor Osimhen and Darwin Nunez, though no major deals were secured before the team flew out to the United States.

“The club is working in order to improve the team, and I believe this will be done. Now it’s pointless to talk about market because the market is closed,” coach Simone Inzaghi Tuesday. And he still has big money recruits from overseas in the form of players like Aleksandar Mitrovic, Joao Cancelo, Kalidou Koulibaly and Ruben Neves.

But the significant acquisition made ahead of the tournament was Inzaghi himself, who left Italian giant Inter Milan earlier this month to become arguably the highest profile coach to head to Saudi Arabia.

“My ambition, the ambition of the club, is to try to grow more, to try to make Al Hilal become one of the best football clubs,” he said. “I believe the time has come to get out of my comfort zone.”

In a sense, Saudi Arabia is shaking soccer out of its comfort zone.

Madrid versus Al Hilal could be seen as a case of soccer's old money versus a seemingly unstoppable disrupter.

Madrid is the biggest powerhouse in the world's most popular sport - its most successful and most storied team. Soccer, however, is witnessing an undoubted powershift and Saudi Arabia is a coming force.

“Sometimes we just focus on what’s going on in Europe, and we think there’s nothing else beyond Europe. We’re too focused on Europe," Madrid coach Xabi Alonso said.

James Robson is at https://twitter.com/jamesalanrobson

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer

Video captures Minneapolis immigration arrest in a city on edge after shooting of Renee Good

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.

In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.

Video of the clash taken by The Associated Press showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.

Immigrant advocacy groups have conducted extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.

But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away.

More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.

The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer on Wednesday.

“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”

Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.

People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.

More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .

“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.

The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.

Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.

While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.

“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."

The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.

Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”

"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.

Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”

The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests in cities across the country over the weekend, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California.

Contributing were Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Thomas Strong in Washington; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.