Welcome to the Athletic FC podcast with me, Ayo Akin Wallere. At 41, Christiana Ronaldo is still making headlines. This time, he's falling out with club Al Nasser, so why is he unhappy? And what does the future hold for the five-time Ballandor winner?

All right, with me in the studio, we've got James Horncastle.

Hello?

And we've also got Olli Kay as well. Right, James,

Ronaldo has been left out of the match day squad for Al Nasser in the last two matches,

following a disagreement over how the club is being managed currently. The reports do suggest that

he could return to the fold this week. All right, real is back on this one. What's going on here?

And can you just clarify

what's happening with Ronaldo? Well, I mean, the January transfer window has just closed. That's

why David Ornstein isn't with us. He has been allowed to go on holiday. But Ronaldo was apparently

not very impressed with what Al Nassar did or didn't do in the January transfer window,

which was sign players like they did last year when they spent, I think, nearly 80 million on John

Geran from Aston Villa.

And, you know, I think while many people would look at this and say, hang on a minute, Cristiano, whether you win the Saudi Pro League or the AFC Champions League, it's not going to move the needle in terms of how your legacy is considered on the football pitch.

He still clearly cares about his team being competitive in those competitions,

winning something more than the, I think the Arab Champions Cup,

which is the only trophy he's won in what the four years that he has been out in Saudi.

And, you know, over the weekend, there were a couple of things that happened to me

which made me sort of rethink this and be sympathetic towards the highest paid football player.

I mean, we'll go into the numbers later, but I don't know how sympathetic is we can be.

One, I watched Marty Supreme with Timothy Chalemay, and I was reminded that Chalemay's character

in there, Marty Mouser, he has this kind of Ronaldo-like determination to be the absolute best at whatever he's doing, whether it be ping pong or football.

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