Cristiano Ronaldo set to complete Al-Nassr move before end of 2022 following Manchester United exit – Paper Round

Cristiano Ronaldo is edging closer to landing at a new club, according to Spanish media outlet Marca. The Portugal international is currently in Dubai and is “ready to fly” to Saudi Arabia and sign for Al-Nassr. The Middle Eastern club have tabled an offer worth a whopping €200 million per season in salary and advertising agreements on a two-and-a-half-year contract. Marca believe the deal will be confirmed before the end of 2022 as the Saudi side are just waiting on Ronaldo to sign the contracts. Al-Nassr are hoping that convincing the five-time Ballon d’Or winner to join will help put Saudi Arabia on the footballing map ahead of their ambitious bid to host the 2030 World Cup.

Paper Round’s view: It looks like the Ronaldo transfer saga will finally be over soon. His huge salary demands mean that it was always going to be unlikely that a club in Europe would take a punt on him. A homecoming with Sporting Lisbon would’ve been nice, but there’s no way they could financially compete with Al-Nassr. The top clubs probably had no interest in going near him after his scathing interview on Manchester United with Piers Morgan. Ronaldo could just retire, but it’s difficult to turn down such a huge final payday. It will be interesting to see how he fares in Saudi Arabia and how much it will increase the demand to watch Saudi Pro League around the world.

Arsenal and Gabriel Martinelli are edging closer to an agreement over a contract extension for the Brazilian attacker. The Mail reveal that the 21-year-old is set to become one of the highest earners at Arsenal with a new deal worth a whopping £200,000 per week. The negotiations are reported to be at an “advanced stage” and the Gunners are optimistic that the confirmation will come soon. Martinelli is “very happy” to extend his stay in north London and his new deal will be seen as a rejection of external interest from rival European giants.

Paper Round’s view: It is vital that Arsenal start to tie down their promising youngsters. Martinelli is just the first in the queue – ahead of Bukayo Saka and William Saliba – that the Gunners need to edge towards contract extension agreements with. Obviously the big talking point is the fact that the Brazil international will be earning an eye-watering £200,000 per week. It’s a huge amount of money and will probably impact any future contract negotiations with the rest of the squad. However, Arsenal will have factored these thoughts in before tabling the offer to Martinelli. The youngster has been consistently class for over a year now, so why not do all you can to tie him down?

Chelsea are leading the way in the battle to sign Brazilian wonderkid Andrey Santos from Vasco da Gama, according to the Times. The 18-year-old midfielder broke into the senior team this year and has already attracted the attention of a number of Premier League clubs, including Manchester City, Liverpool and Newcastle United, as well as Paris Saint-Germain. However, Chelsea look to continue their transfer policy under owner Todd Boehly of signing promising youngsters and Santos could be the next wonderkid to move to west London.

Paper Round’s view: Chelsea have started to commit to a bit of a rebuild and added some talented youngsters to their squad in the summer. The Blues signed Gabriel Slonina, Carney Chukwuemeka and Cesare Casadei – who are all teenagers – while Marc Cucurella and Wesley Fofana were both added to bring a new energy to their ageing defence. It’s an interesting plan. Chelsea have always hoovered up young, exciting talent, but we didn’t really see many of these stars break into the senior squad under Roman Abramovich’s ownership. Hopefully things will change with Graham Potter as manager – as he has history of doing this in the Premier League at Brighton.

Wolves are feeling optimistic that they will be able to complete the signing of Matheus Cunha from Atletico Madrid in the winter transfer window. The Mail report that the two club are engaged in negotiations for Cunha to join the Premier League club on an initial loan, with an option-to-buy clause worth £40 million in the summer. The 23-year-old has struggled for consistent minutes since moving to the Spanish capital in 2021 and believes a loan move to Wolves would help him rediscover his previous form.

Paper Round’s view: Wolves are in desperate need of a striker and have been for a while. They currently sit rock bottom of the Premier League table and have scored just eight goals in their opening 15 matches. Julen Lopetegui has formally taken over and will hope to hit the ground running now the World Cup is over. Cunha could be the answer to his problems if he helps Wolves find the back of the net on a more regular basis than just over once every other game. The Brazilian could be a very shrewd signing if he turns their season around.