{"id":128101,"date":"2025-05-24T13:31:10","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T13:31:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/128101\/"},"modified":"2025-05-24T13:31:10","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T13:31:10","slug":"cristiano-ronaldo-could-play-at-fifa-club-world-cup-infantino-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/128101\/","title":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo could play at FIFA Club World Cup: Infantino | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cristiano Ronaldo is in discussions to play at FIFA\u2019s Club World Cup in June, according to FIFA president Gianni Infantino.<\/p>\n

Cristiano Ronaldo is in \u201cdiscussions\u201d to play at FIFA\u2019s inaugural Club World Cup this summer, according to the president of the sport\u2019s global governing body.<\/p>\n

Gianni Infantino says the former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward might play in the tournament, which is being staged in the United States in June<\/a>, because of a unique transfer window.<\/p>\n

Ronaldo\u2019s Saudi Arabian club Al Nassr did not qualify for the tournament, but Infantino suggested that the Portugal star could switch to one of the 32 teams participating in the tournament.<\/p>\n

\u201cCristiano Ronaldo might play in the Club World Cup,\u201d Infantino told online streamer IShowSpeed, whose YouTube channel has more than 39 million subscribers. \u201cThere are discussions with some clubs, so if any club is watching and is interested in hiring Ronaldo for the Club World Cup, who knows? Still a few weeks\u2019 time, will be fun.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Barcelona'sBarcelona\u2019s Lionel Messi in action with Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus during a Champions League match in 2020 [File: Albert Gea\/Reuters]<\/p>\n

FIFA confirmed on Wednesday that last-minute transfer signings are open to all teams going to the tournament, which fuelled more speculation that one of them will try to sign the 40-year-old Ronaldo on a short-term deal, potentially a loan.<\/p>\n

Such a move would be unprecedented in modern football, though it could appeal to FIFA by boosting the profile and ticket sales of an inaugural tournament being played in 11 US cities.<\/p>\n

A transfer for Ronaldo would also reunite him and Lionel Messi in the same competition for the first time since the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.<\/p>\n

Last October, FIFA invited Messi\u2019s Inter Miami to enter the tournament in the slot that was expected to be reserved for the host nation\u2019s champions. Inter Miami were eliminated in the MLS Cup playoffs.<\/p>\n

Speculative reports have linked Ronaldo to the one Saudi club that qualified, Al Hilal, the Brazilian club Palmeiras and Wydad of Morocco, even though that club is currently banned by FIFA from registering new signings.<\/p>\n

Transfers can be made from June 1-10 and again from June 27 to July 3, according to exceptional rules FIFA approved in October.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe objective is to encourage clubs and players whose contracts are expiring to find an appropriate solution to facilitate the players\u2019 participation,\u201d FIFA said in Wednesday\u2019s statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cristiano Ronaldo is in discussions to play at FIFA\u2019s Club World Cup in June, according to FIFA president…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":128102,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[299,94,13,839,12,3046,6506,93,14,49,286],"class_list":{"0":"post-128101","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-europe","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-middle-east","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-portugal","14":"tag-saudi-arabia","15":"tag-sport","16":"tag-top-stories","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-us-canada"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114563061458985751","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128101","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128101"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128101\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128102"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128101"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128101"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128101"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}