Ronaldo has spent much of the last two years telling anyone who would listen that Ligue 1 is a one-team competition. At a France Football dinner in Paris in late 2016, according to the man who then ran the Ballon d’Or, he said something very different in private.

Pascal Ferré, the former editor of France Football and ex-director of the Ballon d’Or, has retold the story in his new book La face cachée du Ballon d’Or and on Eurosport’s “FC Stream Team” program. After Ronaldo collected the 2016 Ballon d’Or, Ferré says, the magazine hosted an intimate dinner with 15 to 20 of its staff and the winner.

At the table, Ferré recounts, Ronaldo volunteered a very specific daydream: he saw himself “coming into the Parc des Princes with a PSG shirt and with 50,000 Portuguese supporters cheering me.”

Ferré, who called Ronaldo “a hypersensitive person”, said the Portuguese was well aware of the large Portuguese community in Paris. He described the remark as half joke, half serious, and suggested Ronaldo would not have refused Paris Saint-Germain had the Qatari-owned club ever made a move.

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From private wish to public put-down

The Parc des Princes approach never came. Ronaldo stayed at Real Madrid until 2018, moved to Juventus, back to Manchester United and then on to Saudi Arabia, where he has played for Al-Nassr since 2023.

By the time he was asked about Ligue 1 at the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai on 28 December 2024, the tone had changed. Ronaldo told the audience that “all in France is PSG. The rest is finished”, and argued that the Saudi Pro League is more competitive than France’s top flight.

He also pointed to the physical demands of playing in 38 to 40 degree heat, part of a wider pitch he has been making for Saudi football since the move to Riyadh.

Still in Riyadh, under contract until 2027

Any lingering question about whether Ronaldo might yet try the Ligue 1 experience is academic. He signed a two-year extension with Al-Nassr in June 2025 that runs until 2027, and he has repeatedly said he wants to see the deal out.

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Ferré’s book landed in the middle of Ballon d’Or season, and the FC Stream Team segment that put the Parc des Princes anecdote back into circulation aired on 9 October 2026.

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