Cristiano Ronaldo has suggested his high profile stint with Al-Nassr in the Saudi Arabia Pro-League has come to its conclusion.
"This chapter is over," the 40-year-old Portuguese legend wrote on Instagram, while hinting that his playing future was not over.
"The story? Still being written."
Where that story is to be jotted down remains to be seen — but there is a suggestion it could include this year's controversial FIFA Club World Cup.
What's the Club World Cup?
Let's rewind a bit.
The Club World Cup is not a new concept — the first edition was held in 2000 and featured none other than Australia's own South Melbourne, with Ange Postecoglou at the helm.
It was preceded by the Intercontinental Cup which featured the winner of the South American Copa Libertadores taking on the winner of the European Cup/Champions League from 1960 in either a two-legged play-off or a one-off final.
FIFA subsequently recognised winners of this tournament as official Club World Cup winners in 2017.
The 2000-era Club World Cup featured the winners of each confederation's continental championships, but allowed the European and South American teams to have a bye to the semifinals.
Scanning the list of previous winners shows a veritable who's who of the world's biggest clubs; five-time winner Real Madrid and three-time winner Barcelona, both Milan clubs, England's giants Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City and Brazilian sides Corinthians, São Paulo and Internacional to name but a few.
Despite that list of illustrious winners, there was still a sense that big clubs considered the tournament an inconvenient afterthought.
After all, the prize money was a relatively paltry $US5million ($7.7million). By contrast, in 2005 the Champions League winners could take home as much as €18million ($36.5million) for winning the tournament.
So Gianni Infantino shook things up, proposing a quadrennial 32-team tournament, the first of which will take place in the USA from June 15 to July 13.
Why is the Club World Cup controversial?
There's a few reasons, to be honest.
One, the football calendar is already saturated to breaking point — for example, Manchester United and Tottenham, who met in the Europa League final earlier this month, have played 60 games each in all competition this season.
Brentford coach Thomas Frank described the expansion of the tournament as "ridiculous" in April.
"Who wants it? No one," he told the BBC, later saying there was "no chance" he would be watching.
"No, I will enjoy my summer."
Sure, it's not stopped Manchester United from jetting off to Asia for a a post-season tour that will conclude on Friday, with pre-season starting on July 19 in Sweden, and it didn't concern Spurs when they had their post-season tour of Australia at the end of last season which ensured their off-season lasted between May 22 and July 17.
With such a short off-season, it's a wonder more Spurs players didn't suffer from more injuries during the season. Oh, wait…
But hey, at least they didn't have to worry about FA Cup replays, which were cancelled for the first time in the competition's 154-year history in response to fixture congestion, robbing lower league clubs the chance of lucrative trips to big-name opposition.
Then there's the broadcast rights.
The lack of appetite for the tournament was reflected in no major broadcasters offering a sizeable bid to screen the tournament.
Eventually, DAZN stepped in and allowed FIFA to proclaim a $1billion prize pool.
Who is playing at the Club World Cup?
The breakdown of who has qualified for the tournament is thus: UEFA (Europe) has 12 teams, CONMEBOL (South America) has six. There are four teams each from the AFC (Asia), CAF (Africa) and CONCACAF (Central and North America), plus one from the USA as host nation. The final slot went to the OFC (Oceania).
Here's the list.
AFC: Al-Hilal (KSA), Urawa Red Diamonds (JPN), Al Ain (UAE), Ulsan HD (KOR).
CAF: Al Ahly (EGY), Wydad AC (MOR), Esperance de Tunis (TUN), Mamelodi Sundowns (RSA).
CONCAF: CF Monterrey (MEX), Seattle Sounders (USA), Pachuca (MEX), Club América (MEX) or LAFC (USA), Inter Miami (USA).
CONMEBOL: Palmeiras (BRA), Flamengo (BRA), Fluminense (BRA), Botafogo (BRA), River Plate (ARG), Boca Juniors (ARG).
OFC: Auckland City (NZL).
UEFA: Chelsea (ENG), Real Madrid (ESP), Manchester City (ENG), Bayern Munich (GER), Paris Saint-Germain (FRA), Inter Milan (ITA), Porto (POR), Benfica (POR), Borussia Dortmund (GER), Juventus (ITA), Atlético Madrid (ESP), Red Bull Salzburg (AUT).
Teams qualified either by winning the continental champions league or via their coefficient ranking over a four-year period.
Unless a team had won a continental championship, only two teams from each country were allowed to enter (the Brazilian quartet all won the Copa Libertadores in the four-year period).
The eagle-eyed among you would have noticed that Ronaldo's Al-Nassr team are not in that list.
So, when Infantino said, in a somewhat offhanded way, that "Ronaldo might play for one of the teams as well at the Club World Cup," you can imagine ears were pricked.
"There are discussions with some clubs," the FIFA president said in an interview with American YouTuber and streamer IShowSpeed.
"So if any club is watching and is interested in hiring Ronaldo for the Club World Cup … who knows, who knows."
Is Lionel Messi playing?
Well, as it happens, yes he is — and there is no shortage of criticism as to how that came about.
Inter Miami won the Supporters' Shield in Major League Soccer this season.
That's essentially the premiership, awarded for the best team in the regular season.
However, like in Australia, the MLS champions are determined via a finals competition.
In the eyes of most football fans around the world, that would make them deserving of their place.
However, given the champions for 2024, LA Galaxy, did not get a spot, there are a few in America who are a little miffed and assume that had a team other than one with Lionel Messi in it won the Supporters' Shield, they would not have been given the same prize.
"There's no controversy," Inter Miami co-owner Jorge Mas told ESPN in December.
"One of our goals for 2024 was to qualify for the Club World Cup."
Well, that clears that up then.
So how can Ronaldo switch teams to play in the Club World Cup?
Ronaldo joined Al-Nassr in 2022 after leaving Manchester United half way through the season but during one of the two global transfer windows.
There are, traditionally, two transfer windows per year for the big European leagues.
The first is in January and lasts about a month, with the second referred to as the summer transfer window and tends to start in around mid-June until September 1.
Mid June is too late for Ronaldo to join another club though, his contract with Al-Nassr being up on June 30.
Helpfully, FIFA announced an "exceptional registration window" from June 1 to June 10, expressly for players to sign for clubs who are competing in the Club World Cup.
Where will Ronaldo play?
The early frontrunners for the five-time Ballon d'Or winner's signature appear to be from Brazil, with reports in Spain suggesting one of the four clubs from that nation has already tabled a bid.
Botafogo coach Renato Paiva was asked by ESPN whether they would be interested in having Ronaldo in their squad.
"If he came, you can't say no to a star like that," he said.
"I don't know anything. I'm just answering the question. But, as I said, coaches always want the best. Ronaldo, even at his age, is still a goal-scoring machine."
Messi's Inter Miami are in Pool A, alongside FC Porto — an unlikely destination for Ronaldo due to his junior career with Sporting Lisbon — Egyptian side Al Ahly, and Brazil's Palmeiras.
