Cristiano Ronaldo wears traditional Saudi clothes in Al-Nassr video for Saudi National Day

Saudi football club Al-Nassr shared a video ahead of Saudi National Day showing Portuguese footballer Cristiano Ronaldo and other members of the team wearing traditional Saudi clothing while participating in a Saudi folk dance. Saudi National Day is celebrated annually on 23 September and commemorates the renaming of the Kingdom of Hejaz and Nejd as the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia by a royal decree from King Abdulaziz Al Saud. Ronaldo signed a deal with the Saudi club last year to play for them from 2023 to 2025 for a salary of 200m euros a year. Since then, various other high-profile footballers have transferred to Saudi clubs. Critics say Saudi Arabia is using sports as a distraction from human rights issues in the country, known as “sportswashing”. In an exclusive interview with Fox News, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was asked about those accusations, to which he responded by saying, “If sportswashing is going to increase my GDP by one percent, then we’ll continue to do sportswashing.” Subscribe to our channel: Middle East Eye Website: Follow us on TikTok: @middleeasteye Follow us on Instagram: Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Twitter: