'In France, there's only PSG!' - Cristiano Ronaldo insists Saudi Pro League is superior to 'finished' Ligue 1

Ronaldo was present at the 2024 Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai on Friday evening and the five-time Ballon d'Or winner has been speaking his mind on a number of topics ranging from the 'unfair' Ballon d'Or to claiming that he could improve Manchester United's fortunes if he became the Red Devils' owner. However, his most outrageous claim came as he opened up on the quality of the Saudi Pro League and declared that Ligue 1 was worse than the Saudi Arabian top tier.

Speaking at the Globe Soccer Awards, Ronaldo said: "The Saudi Pro League is better than Ligue 1, of course. I'm not saying that because I play here. I don't care what people think about it. Players should come here and they will see quickly. Just try to do sprints at 38, 39, 40 degrees...

"Come and you will see. If you don't believe me, come. In France, they only have PSG, everyone else is finished. Nobody can beat them because they have the most money and the best players."

This is not the first time Ronaldo has taken shots at Ligue 1's quality as he had done so in January as well when talking about his failure to lead Al-Nassr to the Saudi Pro League title, as he claimed that the SPL had more competition than the likes of the French top division.

He said: "To be honest I think the Saudi League is not worse than French league, in my opinion. In [the] French league I think you have two, three teams with a good level. In Saudi now I think it's more competitive.

"They can say whatever they want, it's just my opinion and I played there one year so I know what I'm talking about. But I think right now we are better than [the] French league, we still improve."

The claims regarding the difficulty of the Saudi Pro League could likely be stemming from Ronaldo failing to lead Al-Nassr to the league title in his first two seasons. Unfortunately for the Portugal captain, it seems unlikely that he will be able to get his hands on silverware this season as well with Al-Ittihad and Al-Hilal running away at the top of the table.