Al Nassr have refuted the claim that Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract includes a commitment for him to back Saudi Arabia’s perspective 2030 World Cup bid.

Saudi Arabia are set to launch a bid to co-host the tournament with Greece and Egypt – the first-ever intercontinental bid for hosting rights.

After Ronaldo relocated to Al Nassr at the end of December, rumours circulated that he may serve as an ambassador for the initiative.

However, the club has since issued a statement denying that such a clause is there in his contract.

“Al Nassr FC would like to clarify that contrary to news reports, Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract with Al Nassr does not entail commitments to any World Cup bids,” the statement read.

“His main focus is on Al Nassr and to work with his teammates to help the club achieve success.”

Any such involvement in a World Cup bid could have been conflicting for Ronaldo with Portugal bidding alongside Spain and Ukraine to host the tournament too.

Lionel Messi is also reported to be involved in Saudi Arabia’s bid, though his native Argentina too are in the running for hosting rights.

Ronaldo is scheduled to make his Saudi Arabian football debut against Messi’s PSG in an exhibition game the following week.

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Kalvin Phillips has backed England teammate Harry Maguire to disprove any critics at Saturday’s World Cup quarterfinal against France.

The Manchester United defender was dropped from his club’s starting XI before the World Cup, but he remains an important component in Gareth Southgate’s international setup. He has started all four games in Qatar so far, but French media has singled him out as a weak link.

L’Equipe said the former Leicester centre-back’s pace “could prove detrimental to the England rear guard” against France’s speedsters, suggesting Southgate could move to a three-player defence to counter the likes of Mbappe and Ousmane Dembele.

With Kylian Mbappe dominating the scoring charts with five goals so far, including two in the last-16 victory over Poland, Les Bleus have emerged as a strong favourite to defend their 2018 title.

Despite the fact that Kyle Walker would probably be Maguire’s stronger opponent, there has been discussion that Mbappe will deliberately target the 29-year-old. However, Manchester City midfielder Phillips believes that Mbappe is up to the challenge.\

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He said: “Harry’s not played as much football as he probably would have liked this season and got a lot of stick, which I think is very undeserved.

“He’s a top professional and a great footballer. When he plays for Manchester United he’s one of the best defenders.

“For England, he’s been one of the top defenders for a long time, especially at tournaments. He’s always been that player when we have set pieces or we need to block or to make a challenge, he’s always the first one to do it. He’s always the first one to get his head to the ball. He’s scored some very important goals as well.

“For a lot of people, because he has been mocked quite a lot, he’s the first one they go to.

“If anything bad happened in the England team, he’d be the first person anything would be said about. It’s undeserved. If you look at the major tournaments he has played in and how well he has done in them, you can’t really mock him because he’s been unbelievable.”

With England, Maguire has participated in the 2018 World Cup and the Euro 2020 tournaments thus far, scoring in the quarterfinal wins over Sweden and Ukraine, respectively. On Saturday night at Al Bayt Stadium, there will be a match against France.

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