Cristiano Ronaldo attends White House dinner alongside Saudi crown prince

Superstar football player Cristiano Ronaldo attended a black tie dinner at the White House with the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia on Tuesday night.

Speaking before the event, Trump said it was an “honor” to host Ronaldo, who has become the face of the country’s modernization drive under the crown prince’s rule thanks to his leading role in the Saudi football league.

Bin Salman wants to reduce the country’s dependence on oil revenues by turning to other areas such as sports and tourism.

A White House official confirmed earlier in the day that Ronaldo would attend, but did not say whether he was part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s official delegation.

Trump used his dinner speech to praise closer ties with Saudi Arabia, calling the country “an important non-NATO ally.” Earlier in the day, Trump hosted the Saudi Crown Prince in the Oval Office.

Turning to the Portuguese football star, Trump told the assembled guests: “My son is a big Ronaldo fan.”

“And Baron (Trump) met him, and I think he respects his father a little bit more now, just the fact that I introduced you.”

Also at the dinner was tech billionaire Elon Musk, who joined other influential business leaders including Apple CEO Tim Cook. This is the first time Musk He has been to the White House since resigning as head of the Trump administration’s Office of Government Efficiency (Doge) in April.

Dramatic conflict between Trump and Tesla mogul played in public for monthsand included Musk’s announcement that he would establish a new political party.

Meanwhile, Cristiano Ronaldo’s accession to the White House. It marks one of his first known visits to the United States since 2016.

Meanwhile, he faced allegations of sexual assault. Kathryn Mayorga claimed that Ronaldo raped her in a hotel room in Las Vegas in 2009, but she denied this allegation.

“I absolutely deny the charges against me. Rape is a heinous crime that goes against everything I am and everything I believe in,” she said in a statement in 2018.

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

Ronaldo moved to Saudi Arabia in early 2023, becoming the face of the Saudi Pro League and captain of Al Nassr, the football club owned by sovereign wealth fund PIF, which is chaired by the crown prince.

In an industry where players are paid extraordinary amounts of money, Ronaldo’s salary deal with Saudi Arabia was astronomical. The footballer is reportedly paid $200 million (£152 million) a year, or more than half a million dollars a day.

He then signed a new two-year deal worth $400 million (£300 million) in June this year. became football’s first billionaire player His net worth is $1.4 billion, according to Bloomberg.

This is a huge amount of money for a 40-year-old football player in the twilight period of his career.

But in its quest for modernism, Saudi Arabia has “invested heavily in high-profile events and individuals to put the kingdom on the map” in terms of sports and tourism, according to Sanam Vakil, director of Chatham House’s Middle East and North Africa program.

Ronaldo referred to Prince Mohammed as “our boss” in an interview with broadcaster Piers Morgan.

Earlier this month, he appeared at a Ministry of Tourism event in Riyadh where he talked up the kingdom’s development projects and his hopes for the 2034 FIFA World Cup being held in Saudi Arabia.

Regarding meeting Trump, Vakil says: “The US president likes shiny things and Ronaldo is a shiny thing.”

However, the football player has bigger goals regarding world peace, which will be held in Washington.

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

He told Morgan: “I hope one day I get to sit down with him because he’s one of those people that I truly love.

“I think he can make things happen, and I respect those types of people.”