Cristiano Ronaldo's selfless gesture for Alvaro Gonzalez amid unpaid wages dispute | OneFootball

Alvaro Gonzalez has revealed he went months without pay in Riyadh after moving to Saudi Arabia. "I was in Saudi Arabia without being paid for six months. The first months of my spell in Saudi Arabia, at the best club in the country alongside Al-Hilal. You could pack 70,000 [fans] into a match. I wasn't worried because I had already spent 14 years in football and had saved some money, but I had gone there to earn money."

He told LeFutbolin.

The Spaniard said the delays began before Cristiano Ronaldo’s December 2022 switch from Manchester United. He announced his retirement in early August 2026 aged 36, and called the situation striking at a PIF-backed heavyweight in Saudi sport.

"He found out about the situation. He was going to be paid by the government, and he said that out of his first salary, which wasn't small, the first thing they had to do was pay the players. Some of us hadn't been paid - not everyone - and he said: 'Until these people get paid...' He didn't have to do it, but Cristiano did."

The pair featured together in 11 competitive matches in 2022-23, winning six, before Gonzalez moved on.

Ronaldo is 41 and under contract with the Riyadh giants until June 2027, and he continues to chase a 1,000-goal landmark while spearheading Al-Nassr at home and abroad.

Source: Goal.com

“Artificial intelligence was used to assist in creating this article based on reporting from the original source quoted.”