The Portuguese star recently signed the biggest contract in football history with Al Nassr
Cristiano Ronaldo’s high-profile deal with Saudi side Al Nassr isn’t just the most expensive single contract in football history, it has also comes with the added bonus of permitting him to bypass some of the country’s strict rules when it comes to unmarried couples living together in the same residence.
Ronaldo, 37, signed a two-and-a-half-year deal in late December with the Saudi Pro League team with a reported annual salary believed to be in the region of £175 million per annum ($212 million).
The Portuguese player’s long-term partner, the Argentine-born Spanish model Georgina Rodriguez, was alongside Ronaldo at his glitzy unveiling last week and is to join him in Riyadh alongside his five children, two of whom he had with Rodriguez.
However, Ronaldo’s initial entry into Saudi life came with a hurdle: the strict Islamic laws which expressly forbid “cohabitation without a marriage contract.”
But according to two Saudi legal experts who spoke to Spain’s TYC Sports, the Saudi government has agreed to make an exception for both Ronaldo and Rodriguez due to the global intrigue and increase in profile that Ronaldo’s signing to Al Nassr has brought to Saudi football.
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“Although the laws of the kingdom still prohibit cohabitation without a marriage contract, the authorities have recently started to turn a blind eye and no longer prosecute anyone,” one said.