Ronaldo transfer 'soap opera' has been great 'promotion' for Al-Nassr & I'd be delighted to coach him - Rudi Garcia

• Ronaldo a free agent
• Linked with big-money Saudi switch
• Garcia eager to link up with CR7

WHAT HAPPENED? Ronaldo is on the lookout for a new club after seeing his contract at Manchester United terminated by mutual consent following his controversial interview with Piers Morgan. Al-Nassr has been mooted as the most likely next destination for the 37-year-old, with it reported that a €400 million deal has already been agreed ahead of the January transfer window. Garcia, who was appointed the new head coach of the Saudi outfit in June, is reluctant to confirm Ronaldo's imminent arrival, but he would welcome the chance to work with one of the game's all-time greats.

WHAT THEY SAID: ''I can't say anything about Cristiano because otherwise it would immediately appear in the headlines: 'García: about Ronaldo'. What I see is that it has been a soap opera and it has been a very important promotion for Al-Nassr,'' Garcia said in an interview with Diario AS.

The Al-Nassr boss added: ''I think that any coach would be delighted to train a great star like Cristiano. I have always thought that the great players are the easiest to manage because they are very intelligent, I verified this with Francesco Totti at Roma.''

THE BIGGER PICTURE: Garcia went on to claim that he came close to coaching Ronaldo at United, who considered him for the position of interim manager before the appointment of Ralf Rangnick. ''In November 2021, I was very close to going to United,'' he said. ''They chose Ralf Rangnick, but I met twice with John Murtough and Darren Fletcher [United's director of football and technical director respectively]. I came very close to coaching this club and was very motivated to go, who wouldn't be motivated to coach United? Any coach. United's simple interest has allowed me to be sure of my ambitions in the future.''

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WHAT NEXT FOR RONALDO? The Portugal international is now mulling over his options after crashing out of the 2022 World Cup with his country at the quarter-final stage. Ronaldo is now available as a free agent, and has also been linked with Chelsea and Napoli.