Conditions for the Saudi Cup to settle in China are exposed: Ronaldo must come! The organizer actually intervened in the player transfer?

Several Saudi media have recently reported intensively that the 2025 Saudi Super Cup has been initially scheduled to be held from August 19 to 23, and China is very likely to become the host of this event. If the tour is finally completed, this will be the second time that China has hosted the official international club competition after seven years since the 2019 French Super Cup.

According to the rules, the four participating teams in the Saudi Super Cup are the four champions and runner-up teams in the Saudi Professional League and the Saudi Cup of Rey, namely Jeddah United, Riyadh Crescent, Riyadh Victory and Hubairkudicia. But Ronaldo's contract with Riyadh to expire at the end of June, and the Portuguese, who is plagued by transfers, may become the biggest variable in the entire game. If Ronaldo chooses to join Jeddah nationals who have not been qualified for the competition, the "Chinese script" of the Saudi Super Cup will be instantly rewritten.

And "Royce must participate" - this is the core condition proposed by the Chinese organizer. Saudi media pointed out without hesitation that China's business considerations point to reality: Only when Cristiano Ronaldo appears can the event be maximized. The organizer of the event even intervened in Ronaldo's transfer trends, hoping that he would join Riyadh Crescent instead of Jeddah Nationals.

Recalling history, Ronaldo visited Nanjing as a Juventus player for the first time in 2018, and 50,000 tickets from the Olympic Sports Center were sold out within 72 hours; in the early 2024, Riyadh won the China Tour in China, despite the delay, the grand occasion of selling out in one hour proves that the "C Ronaldo effect" is still strong. But the other side of the coin is the collision of fans who are out of control outside the Shenzhen hotel, the chaos of delaying the pre-match press conference by 5 hours, and the abnormal star-chasing culture reflected by the "Royce toast" of the "Official Event".

The postponement of Ronaldo's trip to China in early 2024 is also a lesson worth learning from. Riyadh victory was originally scheduled to play two consecutive games in Shenzhen, but it was suddenly announced to be postponed 24 hours before the start of the game. This farce exposed the fatal weakness of commercial events: excessive reliance on the stars' personal IP and lack of long-term operational planning. When Ronaldo's flight information became the biggest selling point, the professionalism of the event itself became a supporting role.

Back to the original question: Will Ronaldo really come? Perhaps this issue itself is not important before the contract expires on June 30, before the Saudi Super Cup roster is determined, and before the event operation plan is finalized. What is important is whether we can use this rumor to re-examine the logic of China's hosting international events - from pursuing eye effects to consolidating the operational foundation, from consuming the star's sentiment to cultivating football culture, this may be a more valuable question than "whether Ronaldo comes or not".