Cristiano Ronaldo is unhappy in Saudi Arabia - maybe he never should have gone in the first place

Chasing the dragon is hard enough. Chasing the dragon as you get that bit older, when the joints stiffen and the legs don’t move as ruthlessly as they once did, is harder still. Chasing the dragon in a country where the closest things to actual dragons are spiny tailed lizards and camels with heartburn is nigh on impossible.

When Cristiano Ronaldo left Manchester United towards the end of last year, nobody really batted an eye. Relations between himself and new manager Erik ten Hag had deteriorated to such an extent that his exit felt inevitable. When Cristiano Ronaldo announced that his next club would be Saudi Arabia’s Al-Nassr, however, the whole footballing world hesitated in disbelief.

Financially, it made perfect sense. Then again, it’s amazing what can you wrap your head around when there’s an annual salary of £175 million on the table. Hell, you could set me away writing doctoral theses on quantum mechanics for even a fraction of that wage packet and I’d give it a bloody good bash. But from a sporting perspective, it always felt as if something was missing.

Ronaldo, for all of his flaws, is a ravenous competitor. You don’t get to become the player he has, or to maintain the longevity that he continues to aspire to, without have an unhinged little voice in your head screaming at you to be the very, very best morning, noon, and night, day after day, week after week, year after year. The 38-year-old’s greatest gift, and his most detrimental curse, is that he has to be on top - a perma-tanned pinnacle made of flesh.

In that sense, there was a certain logic to him storming the Saudi game. Nobody else on the Arabian peninsula even begins to come close to him in terms of reputation or talent. He could quite literally make the desert his personal sandpit. To a certain extent, it has proven that way too. Ronaldo has 12 goals in 12 Pro League matches - he is a phenomenon once more.

But evidently it has come at a cost. According to reports, CR7, that sentient billboard made animate, is unhappy with his current situation. Just a handful of months into his Saudi sojourn and there is already talk that he could return to Europe - perhaps to Real Madrid, and perhaps in an ambassadorial role. For added context, his current deal in the Middle East is not due to expire until 2025.

You see, the problem with Ronaldo’s transfer to Al-Nassr was that it was never going to give him what he wants, or indeed, what he needs. Sure, it might placate him for a while, but once the novelty has worn off and the global attention fades a little, he’s left stranded in the sand - towering and unappreciated - like the Statue of Liberty at the end of Planet of the Apes. Ronaldo needs to feel like the best, and the reality is that you can never truly feel at your most potent or relevant in what is essentially a retirement home funded by an infinite slew of grubby wealth.

Maybe Cristiano will come back to Europe; hanging up his boots and striding into the next chapter of his life as a poster boy for Real - kissing hands and shaking babies. Maybe he’ll do no such thing, and will instead see out his time in Saudi Arabia in a state of begrudging dominance. Only time will tell, only he will know. One thing we can now probably say with a decent degree of certainty and the benefit of hindsight, however, is that he never should have gone in the first place.