{"id":92867,"date":"2023-08-18T13:14:34","date_gmt":"2023-08-18T13:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/08\/18\/neymar-salutes-ronaldo-for-blazing-saudi-trail\/"},"modified":"2023-08-18T13:14:34","modified_gmt":"2023-08-18T13:14:34","slug":"neymar-salutes-ronaldo-for-blazing-saudi-trail","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/08\/18\/neymar-salutes-ronaldo-for-blazing-saudi-trail\/","title":{"rendered":"Neymar Salutes Ronaldo&#8230; For Blazing Saudi Trail"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>Neymar holds his Al-Hilal shirt as he poses with President Fahd Bin Saad Al-Nafel<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Neymar said he has moved to a \u201cvery competitive\u201d league by joining Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia and praised Cristiano Ronaldo for igniting the growth of the Saudi Pro League despite being called \u201ccrazy\u201d when he moved to the Middle East last December.<\/p>\n<p>Brazil forward Neymar, 31, quit French champions Paris Saint-Germain to join Riyadh-based Al Hilal, the reigning champions of Asia, in a transfer worth $98.6 million (\u20ac90 million).<\/p>\n<p>The former Barcelona star had been linked with moves to Manchester United, Chelsea and a return to Camp Nou this summer, but speaking for the first time since the move, he said that Ronaldo\u2019s decision to join Al-Nassr following his release from United during the 2022 World Cup helped make Saudi Arabia an appealing destination for himself and some of the game\u2019s top players.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe Cristiano Ronaldo started all of this and everybody called him \u2018crazy,\u2019 and this and that,\u201d Neymar said. \u201cToday you see the league grow more and more.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe league will be very competitive, especially after the signings made in the summer transfer window. I believe competitiveness is important. That\u2019s why I am joining this league. I am driven by challenges. I am there to help the league grow.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI am very excited to write a new story chasing all the objectives with the club and my teammates \u2014 winning more and more titles and fulfilling the club\u2019s ambition. I am very excited in that regard.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Neymar, who will reportedly earn an annual salary of $100m (\u20ac91.7m) at Al Hilal, brings the number of transfers to Saudi Arabia from Europe\u2019s major leagues (England, France, Spain, Italy, Germany and Portugal) to more than 30.<\/p>\n<p>And he said that the presence of Karim Benzema, Roberto Firmino and others will make the Saudi league exciting and competitive.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt is exciting, meeting top-quality players on the other teams thrills you, and motivates you to play even better,\u201d Neymar said. \u201cAnd it is a given when you face Ronaldo, Benzema, Firmino, that the excitement is even greater.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo I am happy to join this league, facing them will be wonderful, it will be fantastic. Of course a lot of Brazil will be watching the league. Obviously I will be there and I expect all Brazilians and everybody following the league to support Al Hilal.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe message I have for them is I will do my best to make them enjoy football, our goal is winning all titles.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The Saudi Pro League has invested over \u20ac600 million to lure a host of top players and coaches from European clubs, with other notable arrivals including Liverpool captain Jordan Henderson and Riyad Mahrez from Manchester City.<\/p>\n<p>Neymar\u2019s new team, Al Hilal, hosts Al-Feiha in the next round of league matches on Saturday.<\/p>\n<p><!-- AI CONTENT END 2 -->\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neymar holds his Al-Hilal shirt as he poses with President Fahd Bin Saad Al-Nafel \u00a0 Neymar said he has moved to a \u201cvery competitive\u201d league by joining Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia and praised Cristiano Ronaldo for igniting the growth of the Saudi Pro League despite being called \u201ccrazy\u201d when he moved to the Middle [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":92868,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Neymar Salutes Ronaldo... 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