Cristiano Ronaldo will be joined at Al-Nassr by another Portugal international star, with confirmation from the Saudi Pro League side of a major transfer coup.<\/p>\n
Article continues under the video<\/center> <\/p>\nAl-Nassr, who are 15% owned by Ronaldo as part of his latest contract agreement<\/b>already have a sizeable Portuguese influence in their ranks. As well as \u2018CR7\u2019, they boast Joao Felix and head coach Jorge Jesus.<\/p>\n
Now that contingent is set to grow following the announcement that they have completed a deal to sign Samu Costa from Mallorca.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe deal was finalised between Mallorca and Al Nassr, with a final agreement reached for the transfer of Samu Costa, after the Saudi club surpassed the offer from RB Leipzig and other European clubs,\u201d Hector Martin told Arriyadiyah<\/i><\/b>.<\/p>\n
The central midfielder was a standout figure for Mallorca in La Liga last season, where he scored seven goals in 34 appearances, despite primarily being cast as a ball-winning player.<\/p>\n
Reports from AS<\/i><\/b> indicate that Al-Nassr are ready to spend \u20ac25 million on Samu, who will surpass Kang-In Lee as Mallorca\u2019s record sale. Saudi source Occurrence<\/i><\/b>however, claims that the total deal will be worth \u20ac9m, which would be a bargain deal.<\/p>\n
Samu was named in Roberto Martinez\u2019s Portugal World Cup squad and played 20 minutes of the 0-0 group stage draw with Colombia.<\/p>\n
He was picked ahead of Mateus Fernandes, who West Ham sold to Tottenham for \u20ac99m earlier this summer, highlighting the pedigree of the player involved.<\/p>\n
Premier League potential<\/h2>\n
Samu had previously been tipped for a Premier League move, with Chelsea, Tottenham, Newcastle and Aston Villa all seen as an ideal destination for the 25-year-old.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis ability to embrace those physical aspects of the game, I think, is something that clearly recommends him as a potential Premier League player,\u201d European football expert Andy Brassell explained to TalkSport<\/i><\/b>.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe’s someone I could definitely see at Aston Villa if they didn’t have Boubacar Kamara coming back who’s absolutely brilliant in that position. The level of physicality that he’s got I think would probably quite suit Newcastle as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cMaybe Chelsea, if they were to move on from Enzo Fernandez – obviously he wouldn’t be the high profile replacement that a lot of Blues fans would be hoping for.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut maybe he’s someone who could be developed, and we know how Chelsea’s main idea is to develop players into someone who could be the next one of that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone who’s got great defensive qualities but is properly box-to-box as well, who can pitch in with goals. And in that sense he would fit pretty well with Chelsea.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we have to underline Spurs as a possibility, because of course, it’s not a given that Joao Palhinha will end up back at Spurs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Related stories:<\/h2>\n
Morgan Rogers transfer failure is a blessing in disguise for Arsenal<\/b><\/p>\n
Transfer Rumours: Chelsea deal ‘expected’ as Alex Scott talks opened<\/b><\/p>\n
Premier League summer transfers 2026: All the Done Deals<\/b><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
22 Jul 2026 10:57 BST | 3 min read \u00a9 IMAGO Robin Bairner | Chief…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20094,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-chelsea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}