The Al Nassr kit is available only under the name of Ronaldo

It is well known to everyone that Saudi Arabia has chosen to change the world and the football market, but where are we in this long and complicated process? While, on the players' side, the summer of the Saudi Pro League has been more than fruitful, thanks to intensive shopping among the major European leagues, the kit situation certainly cannot be said to be as positive. Besides the terrible design of some of the game kits, e.g. the kit of the Steven Gerrard's Al-Ettifaq, the problem so far has also been the limited availability of such shirts for sale.

One of the most coveted in particular, Cristiano Ronaldo's Al Nassr, was unavailable for much of the season. CR7's club, who are third in the standings, recently changed technical sponsors, going from Saudi-based Duneus to Nike, a deal inevitably influenced by the Portuguese star's presence. But Nike's adventure in Saudi Arabia did not quite go to plan, with the team's official jersey still not on sale three months before the start of the championship. The delay was due to the fact that Al Nassr was not one of Nike's premium clubs and therefore the jerseys would have had to be designed in-house, which would not have been possible given the high demand for the jerseys.

Today, finally, Al Nassr's kit is available on the team's European website, but only in the Home version with Cristiano Ronaldo's name and number printed on the back. A rather absurd choice, both out of respect for Ronaldo's teammates and because, considering the delay in putting it up for sale, it would have been right to offer fans of the club and anyone interested in buying the shirt an offer that matches the technical sponsor. Considering the timing of the release, we cannot say that Al Nassr will be able to earn a figure anywhere near the amount earned by their rival Al Hilal, which managed to sell more than 10,000 Neymar Jr. jerseys in the first 7 hours of the sale.

Not being able to sell jerseys for the first three months of the season has been detrimental to Al Nassr, considering that it is one of the few clubs in the Saudi league to have a marketable and attractive kit, even to collectors, as only two sponsors appear on the front of the jersey (only one in matches played in the Asian Champions League). The ambitious project of the Saudi Pro League and the PIF has clear room for improvement, but, especially for the sake of consistency and reputation, it will need to address these details that are crucial in how the image is received by football fans.