Al-Nassr has allegedly been pressured by Cristiano Ronaldo to sign Mateo Kovacic from Manchester City. Kovacic, 30, signed a summer transfer deal with City from Chelsea for approximately £25 million with add-ons.
Kovacic won the Premier League for the first time in his career in his first season at the Etihad Stadium. Alongside this, the Croatian helped City reach the quarter-final of the Champions League and the FA Cup final. He made 46 appearances, scoring three goals in all competitions last term.
Kovacic has started this campaign in fine form and scored on the opening weekend against former club Chelsea.
However, the return of Ilkay Gundogan from Barcelona has raised question marks over his future. Despite rumours circulating of a move away, Kovacic remained at City following the end of the transfer window.
Now, according to CBS Sports, it has emerged that Saudi Pro League side Al-Nassr were interested in a move for Kovacic on deadline day.
They are said to have been prepared to offer the midfielder a staggering £840,000 per-week contract – approximately six times more than his current earnings at City – to lure him to the Middle East.
Al-Nassr had hoped to secure Kovacic as a marquee signing before the end of the summer deadline. However, their inability to clear space on their international roster prevented any deal from being finalised.
Each club participating in the Saudi Pro League has the right to register a maximum of eight non-Saudi players in the list for each match in addition to one foreign player born in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Nassr needed to offload Sadio Mane and Anderson Talisca to create room for Kovacic – but they managed to get rid of neither.
It’s added that Ronaldo has been pushing Al-Nassr to complete a move for Kovacic. Ronaldo and Kovacic played together at Real Madrid and were part of the team that won three successive Champions League titles between 2016 and 2018. Adding to this, Kovacic’s former Croatia teammate Marcelo Brozovic is at Al-Nassr.
Although Al-Nassr failed to sign Kovacic in the summer, CBS adds that the Saudi club are ready to go back in for the former Chelsea man in January. Kovacic has three years left on his contract at City.
