Three reports, one intermediary, zero confirmations
The Al Nassr takeover story broke through Brazilian outlet Metrópoles on Tuesday 15 September and was picked up across at least 22 outlets within hours, including Portugal's Observador, which framed the whole thing as a question rather than a fact.
The Italian strand is more specific and more cautious. Sportitalia reported preliminary and indirect contacts, made through intermediaries, to test whether RedBird Capital Partners could take a stake in — or buy into — the ownership of Al Nassr. The same report called the task "uphill" for Cardinale, while noting he is evaluating how to make it work.
That is a long way from a signed term sheet. It is the language of a fund sounding out a seller through third parties, which is how most sports transactions start and how most of them also quietly end.
The numbers circulating do not agree with each other
Aggregated headlines have attached figures to the story that have not been reconciled anywhere on the record. One puts Ronaldo's personal outlay at €92m. A Greek outlet framed the whole thing as a €500m deal. Others simply call it a billionaire proposal.
Those are not two versions of the same number. They describe different transactions — a minority buy-in versus a control deal — and until somebody publishes a structure, treating either as the price would be guesswork.
A separate social-media account cited by Australian outlet Football360 claimed a "crucial meeting" between RedBird and PIF was scheduled within two days. Unsourced scheduling claims on X are the weakest link in the chain here, and we would not build anything on them.
Cardinale's multi-club map already runs through Milan and Toulouse
The reason the report is plausible at all is that RedBird has been assembling exactly this kind of portfolio for a decade.
Cardinale founded the firm in 2014 after two decades at Goldman Sachs, where he built the YES Network with the New York Yankees and co-created Legends Hospitality with Jerry Jones. RedBird now runs more than $14bn in assets.
Its football holdings are already cross-border:
- AC Milan — acquired from Elliott Investment Management on 31 August 2022 for €1.2bn (about $1.37bn).
- Toulouse — Ligue 1, owned since 2020.
- Fenway Sports Group — a stake taken in 2021, which carries indirect exposure to Liverpool.
So a Saudi Pro League club would not be a strange purchase for this buyer. It would be the logical next node in a City Football Group-style network — a Serie A brand, a Ligue 1 development club, and a Gulf market with money and no continental broadcast ceiling.
The complication is that Milan's own results and squad-building have not made a compelling advertisement for RedBird's football operation, and adding a fourth jurisdiction invites the usual questions about where the best players end up.
PIF spent August buying the last 25%. Selling is a separate decision
Here is the structural problem with the reports as written: Saudi Arabia has been moving in the opposite direction, at least on paper.
Under the Sports Clubs Investment and Privatization Project launched in June 2023, PIF took 75% stakes in Al Nassr, Al Hilal, Al Ittihad and Al Ahli, with nonprofit foundations retaining 25%. In August 2026, the Ministry of Sport confirmed the transfer of those remaining nonprofit stakes to PIF, with the associated boards dissolved.
| Club | 2023 structure | Latest confirmed development |
|---|---|---|
| Al Nassr | PIF 75%, nonprofit 25% | Nonprofit 25% stake transferring to PIF |
| Al Ittihad | PIF 75%, nonprofit 25% | Nonprofit 25% stake transferring to PIF |
| Al Ahli | PIF 75%, nonprofit 25% | Nonprofit 25% stake transferring to PIF |
| Al Hilal | PIF 75%, nonprofit 25% | Transfer under way alongside Kingdom Holding's agreed 70% purchase |
Ownership figures reflect the 2023 privatization framework and subsequently announced transactions.
Read one way, consolidation contradicts a sale. Read another, it enables one: a single owner holding 100% can sell a clean, unencumbered block without negotiating with a foundation board that no longer exists.
The Al Hilal precedent is the strongest argument for the second reading. In April 2026, PIF signed a binding agreement for Kingdom Holding Company to acquire a 70% controlling stake in Al Hilal Club Company. That is a confirmed transfer of control in a PIF club to an outside investor. It establishes both the mechanism and the appetite.
What it does not establish is that a US private-equity fund gets the same treatment a domestic Saudi holding company did.
The debt picture cuts both ways
Al Nassr's reported financial position is part of why the story has legs. The club has been dealing with rising debts, and PIF has reportedly restricted new signings unless they are funded by fresh sponsorship income or revenue the club generates itself.
A club under a spending freeze is a club with a reason to welcome outside capital. It is also a club whose books a buyer would want to see in detail before committing — which fits "uphill" rather better than it fits "imminent".
An Al Nassr takeover would land on Postecoglou's desk mid-season
The football side is, awkwardly, going well.
Ange Postecoglou has taken five wins from his first seven league games, sitting third and two points behind Al Hilal. The club opened its AFC Champions League Elite campaign away at Al Ain. Asked about it beforehand, Postecoglou kept it simple: "I'm looking forward to winning the AFC Champions League Elite."
Ownership change during a title race is rarely neutral. New investors bring new sporting directors, new recruitment models and new patience thresholds — and Postecoglou's career has not lacked examples of results and boardroom opinion moving in different directions.
Ronaldo may already own a slice of what he would be buying
The strangest wrinkle sits in Ronaldo's existing contract. His two-year extension signed in 2025 was reported by The Sun to include a 15% ownership stake in Al Nassr, valued at roughly £33m, inside a package worth at least £492m across two years.
The rest of that reported deal: a £178m annual salary — about £488,000 a day — a signing-on fee of £24.5m rising to £38m if the second year triggers, £80,000 per goal, £40,000 per assist, £8m for a league title and £4m for the Golden Boot.
If the 15% figure is accurate, Ronaldo is not a new entrant to the cap table. He would be a minority holder joining a consortium to buy out the majority holder — which changes the framing from "player buys club" to "existing shareholder consolidates with outside capital".
It also raises governance questions nobody has answered: a registered, active player holding meaningful equity in his employer sits uncomfortably alongside how most federations think about influence over competition.
Until PIF, RedBird or Ronaldo's representatives say something on the record, the honest position is that a serious buyer with a track record of exactly this kind of deal has reportedly made an approach through intermediaries, and that the seller has given no public indication it wants to sell. Those are two very different stages of a transaction, and the gap between them is where most of these stories die.