Another Saudi signing? Cristiano Ronaldo pushing Al-Nassr to lure Man City player with $1 million-a-week wages

The Saudi Pro League side had hoped to make Mateo Kovacic a signing on deadline day and now will likely go back in for him in January

Al-Nassr are targeting Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic in the January transfer window with a pay package worth over $1 million a week designed to snare the Manchester City midfielder, according to CBS Sports sources. The Saudi Pro League side had hoped to make Kovacic a marquee deadline-day signing on Monday but was unable to shift Sadio Mane and create the international space needed for a player whose acquisition, per sources, has been heavily championed by Cristiano Ronaldo. Neymar Paris Saint-Germain Al-Hilal $99.4m Moussa Diaby Aston Villa Al-Ittihad $66.3m Malcom Zenit Saint Petersburg Al-Hilal $66.3m Otavio Porto Al-Nassr $66.3m Ruben Neves Wolverhampton Wanderers Al-Hilal $60.8m

The Saudi side is also considering a move for free agent Adrien Rabiot and awaits interest from Turkiye in both Mane and Anderson Talisca. Currently, the Riyadh side does not have space on the roster to add another international player over the age of 21 and would need to move on one of eight foreign veterans to add to the squad. Any signing of Rabiot would be in addition to the planned move for Kovacic.

Al-Nassr and their star forward Ronaldo view the Croatian midfielder as a potentially transformative addition to their team and are intending to make City a sizeable offer when the window reopens at the start of 2025. Sources close to the club indicate that the fee they were prepared to pay on deadline day would have been one of the most expensive ever paid by a Saudi club. In addition to the sizeable fee they had been prepared to offer City, Al-Nassr had intended to offer a salary understood to be worth in the region of $65 million a year for Kovacic, roughly six times what he currently earns.