Former Manchester United defender Gary Neville has revealed that he would like to see Cristiano Ronaldo continue to ply his trade in the top tier of English football.
Following his explosive interview with Piers Morgan, Ronaldo had his contract at Old Trafford terminated by mutual consent and is currently without a club.
Saudi Arabian outfit Al Nassr are the front-runners to land the five-time Ballon d’Or winner after tabling a mammoth offer, but Ronaldo’s ex-teammate hopes he remains in the Premier League.
“How does he see the end of his career playing out?” Neville told Sky Sports.
” Does he see the end of his career playing out in lesser leagues or does he see his career playing out in one of the major leagues and continuing at that level?
” I hope it’s the latter and he can find a club in a major league, even the Premier League – I would love him to stay in the Premier League at a club that can have him up front and we can watch him every week.
” That’s what we want to see, we want to see him playing.”
Despite the strained relationship between the duo, Neville was also full of sympathy for Ronaldo, who was pictured in tears off the back of Portugal’s quarterfinal exit from the World Cup at the hands of Morocco.
“I felt sorry for Cristiano in the end when he was walking down that tunnel in tears – that long walk down the tunnel that they showed after the game against Morocco,” he added.
” That’s never a good image because you know he’s thinking ‘this is it, I’m never going to play in this tournament again’.”
Ronaldo’s future will become clearer with the January transfer window on the horizon, but for now the 37-year-old is keeping fit at Real Madrid’s training facility.
His preference would be to remain in Europe but failing to attract interest from any of Europe’s elite could see him jet off to the Middle East for the final phase of what has undeniably been an illustrious career.
