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As one of the famous people on the planet, Cristiano Ronaldo lives on a different plane of existence than not just most fans of the game, but most players.
When the former Manchester United and Real Madrid man made the move to Saudi Pro League side Al Nassr in 2023, he swapped an Old Trafford dressing room full of household names to a side consisting largely of homegrown players with a sprinkling of recognisable names.
Former Villarreal and Spain U21 centre-back Alvaro Gonzalez had made the move to Al Nassr a year before Ronaldo and admits he was pleasantly surprised when it came to living and working alongside one the game’s modern-day icons.
Alvaro Gonzalez on playing alongside Ronaldo
“The club was already big,” Gonzalez tells FourFourTwo. “Al Hilal and Al Nassr were the two strongest clubs within Saudi Arabia, and also important at Asian level. But nothing compared to the scale it reached when Cristiano arrived.
“A month or two before Christmas in 2022, my family and friends started to send me messages saying, ‘Hey, they’re saying Cristiano might sign for your club.’ To hear that was incredible – I thought to myself, ‘I’m going to play with one of the greatest footballers in history.’”
Ronaldo was then unveiled in front of 26,000 people at the club’s King Saud University Stadium. “The presentation was one of the most spectacular, maybe ever, in the history of sport,” Gonzalez says. “Beforehand, we were all in the dressing room waiting to meet him, some more nervous than others.
“When the moment came though, he was very approachable. He greeted us individually – he said, ‘Alvaro, how are you?’, because we’d faced each other many times playing in La Liga. That he took the time to call me by my name and ask a question, when the very next day we’d be training together, made everything much easier.
“Whenever we trained, Cristiano was an animal. He loves football, but what drives him most is competition and breaking records. Training better than the day before.”
The Portuguese hit the ground running, netting eight goals in his first five games. “His impact was huge,” Gonzalez remembers. “All the stadiums we went to were packed, in every city.
“At any football club you have security, but when he arrived, it had to multiply by 20. In the hotels, everyone wanted to see him and take photos. He’s very accessible, but you need to have boundaries, otherwise you can’t relax or even have a coffee. Everything changed. If he changed things at Real Madrid, the biggest football club in the world, how could he not change a place like Saudi Arabia?”
Away from this, Ronaldo was able to bond with his new team-mates. “Footballers really are just very normal people, and that’s what I found with him,” Gonzalez says.
“Everyone imagines how he might be, but I had the chance to live and work alongside Cristiano, and it was a very pleasant surprise. We shared a language, and in just a few weeks, a closeness developed to the point where you thought, ‘How wonderful that someone like Cristiano, who’s achieved everything there is in football, comes with such enthusiasm to compete here.’
“We’d joke around and plan activities outside football – sometimes we would stay for dinner at the training ground, because of what it was like for him to go out, the complications of being in public. Training was in the afternoon, so we’d stay until 11pm or midnight, eating calmly and healthily.
“Hearing him talk about his life, his business ventures and his perspective on football was special, it’s a precious experience I’ll carry with me forever. I’m not at Al Nassr any more, but if I ever send him a message, he still responds.”
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