Former Manchester United and Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo has made it to the FifPro Team of the Year shortlist. The Portuguese player who is currently plying his trade with Al Nassr had a troubled 2022, where he was ousted out of the club by his English employers Manchester United and was struggling to make the XI for Portugal as well at the FIFA World Cup 2022. Undoubtedly this was noticed by sports and betting news. 

FifPro announced a 26-man shortlist owing to the 24 goals he scored in 39 matches last season, which includes two hat-tricks, against Tottenham Hotspur and Norwich City. He had also scored five goals in five matches during the UEFA Champions League group stages, which includes two late winners against Villarreal and Atalanta. However, after United appointed Erik Ten Hag as manager, his performances began to dip. 

He was soon taken out of the playing XI and Manchester United seemed to garner better results without him. Since the beginning of this season, he only scored two goals for the Red Devils across all competition, one in the Europa League and one in the Premier League. Later on, an interview he gave to Piers Morgan where he bashed the club and manager saw him quit in January. 

He moved to Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr on a free transfer, a deal which will see him earn a massive salary of £173m a year. No footballer in the world is currently earning as much money as he does and he is off to a fine start to life in Asia, most recently scoring four goals in a match against Al Wehda. He also completed the milestone of 500 league goals in his career. Go to Nextbet and explore more sports and betting news. 

Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, Kevin De Bruyne and Joao Cancelo also made the cut for this list. England midfielder Jude Bellingham – who has been linked with both United and City – is also included. Ronaldo’s former Real Madrid teammates Luka Modric and Karim Benzema were also shortlisted for this elite honour.