Cristiano Ronaldo’s new coach jokes he wants to sign Lionel Messi

Cristiano Ronaldo’s new manager risked angering the star by laughing as he told reporters he wanted to sign Lionel Messi first following his World Cup exploits.

Al Nassr boss Rudi Garcia has been asked about Ronaldo’s arrival in Saudi Arabia in a stunning £175million-a-year deal.

He replied: ‘First I tried to take Messi’ before bursting into laughter.

Cristiano Ronaldo has signed a spectacular contract with Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr

However, Ronaldo’s new manager Rudi Garcia risked angering the star with a joke that he wanted to sign Lionel Messi first

Ronaldo wouldn’t be too happy about being beaten by the Argentine but let’s hope it doesn’t cause too much friction when he arrives at Al Nassr in the coming days.

The Portugal forward was unveiled on Friday wearing Al Nassr’s yellow and blue jersey with his trademark No.7 on the back.

He has been a free agent since mutually terminating his contract with Manchester United following his infamous interview with Piers Morgan.

France coach Garcia, formerly of Roma, Marseille and Lyon, took charge at Al Nassr in June.

Garcia has been manager of the Saudi Arabian club since June and is now coaching Ronaldo

Lionel Messi won the World Cup with Argentina last month, cementing his status as a superior player to Ronaldo in the eyes of many fans

Ronaldo’s World Cup ended in tears as Portugal were eliminated by Morocco in the round of 16

He has insisted that “the big players are the easiest to deal with” before Ronaldo arrives, despite the player’s falling out with Erik ten Hag at United and Portugal manager Fernando Santos at the World Cup.

Garcia told AS: “I think any manager would be delighted to coach a great star like Cristiano and back in November 2021 I was very close to joining United.

“They chose Ralf Rangnick, but I met with John Murtough and Darren Fletcher twice [United’s director of football and technical director respectively].

Ronaldo was unveiled as an Al Nassr player on Friday as he inked a £175million-a-year deal

Ronaldo’s deal with Man United was ripped up last month after a lengthy interview with Piers Morgan

The move came just days after Ronaldo’s bombshell interview with Piers Morgan on TalkTV

“I came very close to coaching this club and was very motivated to go. Who wouldn’t be motivated to coach United? Any coach. United’s simple interest has allowed me to be sure of my ambitions in the future.

“I’ve always thought that the big players are the easiest to deal with because they’re very intelligent. I checked that with Francesco Totti at Roma.”

Al-Nassr fans, meanwhile, have expressed their excitement over Ronaldo’s imminent arrival by grabbing replica shirts and chanting his name in the stands.

A 1-0 win over Al-Khaleej on Saturday kept the one-point lead at the top of the Saudi Pro League ahead of Ronaldo’s arrival.

A video shared on Twitter showed excited Al-Nassr fans chanting Cristiano Ronaldo’s name as they won in the Saudi professional league on Saturday night

Al-Nassr has printed Cristiano Ronaldo kits after his arrival was confirmed

The fans have already lined up at the club shop to pick up the famous No. 7 jersey

Fans have posed with the shirt Ronaldo will wear when he plays for the club