Cristiano Ronaldo to visit White House on same day as Saudi Crown Prince

Superstar soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo will visit the White House on Tuesday, a U.S. official confirmed, the same day the Portuguese is currently playing football in Saudi Arabia.

White House officials did not say Ronaldo was part of the official delegation of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

However, his star role in the Saudi football league has made him the face of the country’s modernization drive under the country’s de facto ruler, the crown prince, who hopes to reduce the country’s dependence on oil revenue by diversifying into other areas such as sports and tourism.

The footballer is not believed to have been to the United States since 2016.

During this time, he faced sexual assault charges. Kathryn Mayorga claims Ronaldo raped her in a Las Vegas hotel room in 2009, which he denies.

“I categorically deny the allegations against me. Rape is an abhorrent crime that goes against everything I stand for and believe in,” he said in a 2018 statement.

In 2019, U.S. prosecutors said Ronaldo would not face charges because the allegations could not be proven.

At the beginning of 2023, Ronaldo jumped to Saudi Arabia and became the spokesperson of the Saudi Professional League and the captain of Al Nassr Football Club. Al Nassr is a football club owned by sovereign wealth fund PIF and chaired by the crown prince.

In an industry that pays huge salaries to players, Ronaldo’s pay deal with Saudi Arabia is astronomical. The footballer’s annual salary is reported to be $200m (£152m), which is more than $500,000 a day.

Then in June this year he signed a new two-year contract worth a reported $400m (£300m) Became football’s first billionaire player, According to Bloomberg, his net worth is $1.4 billion.

That’s a lot of money for a 40-year-old football player in the twilight of his career.

But in its pursuit of modernism, Saudi Arabia has “invested heavily in high-profile events and individuals to put the kingdom on the map” in sport and tourism, said Sanan Wakil, director of the Middle East and North Africa program at Chatham House.

Ronaldo called Prince Mohammed “our boss” in an interview with Piers Morgan Broadcasting Company.

Earlier this month, he appeared at a Ministry of Tourism event in Riyadh and spoke about the country’s development projects and his hopes of hosting the 2034 FIFA World Cup in Saudi Arabia.

As for meeting Trump, Vakil said: “The president of the United States likes shiny things, and Ronaldo is a shiny thing.”

Although the football player had greater ambitions for the Washington meeting – world peace.

In July, European Council President Antonio Costa presented Trump with a Portugal jersey signed by Ronaldo that read: “To President Donald J. Trump, for the fight for peace.”

He told Morgan: “I would love to sit down with him one day because he’s one of the people I really like.

“I think he can make things happen and I respect that as a guy.”

President Trump has already hosted the Saudi crown prince in the Oval Office, and their next meeting is at a lavish dinner in the East Room of the White House — which Ronaldo appears to be in attendance.

The White House has so far been silent on the guest list, but it is reported that it will also include CEOs of prominent American companies, many of which have business ties to Saudi Arabia.