Did Cristiano Ronaldo dream of joining PSG?

Cristiano Ronaldo (41) has often been critical of Ligue 1, however, the Portugal international may have dreamed of playing for Paris Saint-Germain. That’s according to Pascal Ferré, the former head of France Football, who run the Ballon d’Or award.

In an interview with Eurosport, Ferré detailed how, after winning the Ballon d’Or award in 2016, he dined with Ronaldo with around 15/20 other workers at France Football. It was during this intimate dinner that Ferré spoke with Ronaldo, who, according to the former head of France Football, is a “hypersensitive person”, and was aware of the large Portuguese community in the French Capital.

A Real Madrid player at the time, Ferré said that Ronaldo confessed to those at his table that he dreamed of one day “coming into the Parc des Princes with a PSG shirt and with 50,000 Portuguese supporters cheering me”. Ferré has said that, whilst there was a slight jokey tone to the Al-Nassr forward’s comment, there was also a degree of truth in it and he hypothesised that, had PSG approached him down the line, he would not have said no.

In recent years, since joining Al-Nassr in the Saudi Pro League, Ronaldo has been critical of France’s top flight. “[The] Saudi League is better than Ligue 1, of course. France only has Paris Saint-Germain. The rest are finished,” he said back in 2024.

GFFN | Luke Entwistle