It would be interesting to know, if possible, how many foreigners are watching the Saudi Professional League because there is Cristiano Ronaldo. I'd rather watch a Champions League qualification stage with some Swedish or Croatian team rather than a Saudi match just because there is a 40-year-old Ronaldo walking around the pitch. And the first people who don't care about the Saudi league are Saudi Arabian people because the stadiums are usually mainly empty, just for a few matches you can see a lot of people. That is not passion, they just don't care.
I was one of the people who started looking at and ultimately continued to follow the SPL after Cristiano Ronaldo came to Al-Nassr. And for now I might even continue to watch some matches involving one of my favorite teams in the SPL such as Al-ittihad and Al-hilal. Even though Cristiano Ronaldo is no longer playing for one of the SPL clubs. But yeah without Cr7 things would be completely different. And yeah the SPL's popularity probably won't be what it is today. But still the interesting fact is that football remains one of the favorite sports for native people from Saudi Arabia. It's just that the popularity of football there is not as good as in Europe. But now the SPL seems to really be getting attention from the world.
Before Ronaldo joined Al Nasr, I personally did not know the teams in the Saudi Arabian league, I even thought whether Saudi Arabia had a football league. But after Ronaldo joined Al Nasr and was followed by other players from Europe, that's where I started to know about the Saudi Arabian league and started to watch it. In my opinion, the Saudi Arabian league is currently quite interesting to watch, because basically currently in the Saudi Arabian league teams there are many names of star players who have joined. So it is undeniable that with this, the Saudi Arabian league has become more exciting to watch. Although not as exciting as the matches in the top European leagues, I personally also quite enjoy the matches held in the Saudi Arabian league.
In addition, I think with Ronaldo in the Saudi Arabian league, in the end many people will end up watching the matches in the Saudi Arabian league. Because as we know, Ronaldo's fans are very large and also always follow Ronaldo wherever he goes. So automatically after Ronaldo joined Al Nasr, his fans will definitely watch his matches with Al Nasr. So the point is that Ronaldo has indeed given a big influence to the Saudi Arabian league. Likewise with the presence of other star players, such as Benzema, Neymar (formerly), Sadio Mane, and also Nacho Fernandes. This has indeed had a big influence on the audience rating in the Saudi Arabian league. So the point is that is why the teams in the Saudi Arabian league bring in great players from Europe.